IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


1.0 


I.I 


IM  ilM 

lU    112.2 


m 


2.0 


1.8 


1.25      1.4 

1.6 

-* 6"     — 

► 

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e. 


e}. 


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Photographic 

Sciences 
Corporation 


4. 


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V 


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V 


4i 


^ 


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23  V^J.^3I 
WEBSTE' 

(716) 


'Ak'W  jVHEET 
,N.T'.  14S80 
872-4503 


A 


CIHM/ICMH 

Microfiche 

Series. 


CIHM/ICMH 
Collection  de 
microfiches. 


Canadian  institute  for  Historical  IVIicroreproductions 


Institut  Canadian  de  microreproductions  historiques 


1980 


A 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes/Notes  techniques  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best 
original  copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this 
copy  which  may  be  bibliographically  unique, 
which  may  alter  any  of  the  images  in  the 
reproduction,  or  which  may  significantly  change 
the  usual  method  of  filming,  are  checked  below. 


D 


D 


n 


n 


n 


Coloured  covers/ 
Couverture  de  couleur 


r~~\    Covers  damaged/ 


Couverture  endommag^e 


Covers  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Couverture  restaur^e  et/ou  pelliculde 


I      I    Cover  title  missing/ 


Le  titre  de  couverture  manque 

Coloured  maps/ 

Cartes  gdographiques  en  couleur 

Coloured  ink  (i.e.  other  than  blue  or  black)/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

Coloured  plates  and/or  iihtstrations/ 
Planches  et/ou  illustrations  en  couleur 


Bound  with  other  material/ 
Reii6  avec  d'autres  documents 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin/ 

La  reliure  serree  peut  causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la 
distortion  le  long  de  la  marge  intdrieure 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoration  may 
appear  within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these 
have  been  omitted  from  filming/ 
II  se  peut  que  certaines  pages  blanches  ajoutdes 
lors  d'une  restauration  apparaissent  dans  le  texte, 
mais,  lorsque  cela  6tait  possible,  ces  pages  n'ont 
pas  6t6  film^es. 

Additional  comments:/ 
Commentaires  suppl^mentaires; 


L'Institut  a  microfilm^  le  meilleur  exemplaire 
qu'il  lui  a  6t6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details 
de  cet  exemplaire  qui  sont  peut-dtre  uniques  du 
point  de  vue  bibliographique,  qui  peuvent  modifier 
une  image  reproduite,  ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une 
modification  dans  la  m^thode  normale  de  filmaga 
sont  indiqu6s  ci-dessous. 


□    Coloured  pages/ 
Pages  de  couleur 

□    Pages  damaged/ 
Pages  endommagdes 


7 


D 


Pages  restored  and/or  laminated/ 
Pages  restaur^es  et/ou  pelliculdes 


I      I    Pages  discoloured,  stained  or  foxed/ 


Pages  d6color6es,  tachetdes  ou  piqudes 

Pages  detached/ 
Pages  d6tach6es 

Showthrough/ 
Transparence 

Quality  of  prir 

Qualit^  in^gale  de  Timpression 

Includes  supplementary  materic 
Comprend  du  matdriel  supplementaire 

Only  edition  available/ 
Seule  Edition  disponible 


I  I  Pages  detached/ 

I  I  Showthrough/ 

I  I  Quality  of  print  varies/ 

I  I  Includes  supplementary  material/ 

I  I  Only  edition  available/ 


T» 
to 


Tl 

P< 
of 
fil 


O 
bf 

th 
sii 
o1 
fil 
si 
oi 


Tl 
sY 
Tl 
w 

M 
di 
er 
b( 

"1 
re 


Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 
slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image/ 
Les  pages  totalement  ou  partiellement 
obscurcies  par  un  feuillet  d'errata,  une  pelure, 
etc.,  ont  6t6  film^es  d  nouveau  de  fapon  d 
obtenir  la  meilleure  image  possible. 


This  item  is  filmed  at  the  reduction  ratio  checked  below/ 

Ce  document  est  film6  au  taux  de  reduction  indiqu6  ci-dessous. 

10X  14X  18X  22X 


26X 


30X 


/ 

12X 


16X 


20X 


24X 


28X 


32X 


.v>a 


9 

itails 
B  du 
lodifier 
r  une 
Imaga 


The  copy  filmed  here  has  been  reproduced  thanks 
to  the  generosity  of: 

National  Library  of  Canada 


The  images  appearing  here  are  the  best  quality 
possible  considering  the  condition  and  legibility 
of  the  original  copy  and  in  keeping  with  the 
filming  contract  specifications. 


L'exemplaire  film6  fut  reproduit  grdce  d  la 
g6n6rosit6  de: 

Bibliothdque  nationale  du  Canada 


Les  images  suivantes  ont  6t6  reproduites  avec  le 
plus  grand  soin,  compte  tenu  de  la  condition  et 
de  la  nettetd  de  l'exemplaire  film6,  et  en 
conformity  avec  les  conditions  du  contrat  de 
filmage. 


Original  copies  in  printed  paper  covers  are  filmed 
beginning  with  the  front  cover  and  enc^ing  on 
the  last  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, or  the  back  cover  when  appropriate.  All 
other  original  copies  are  filmed  beginning  on  the 
first  page  with  a  printed  or  illustrated  impres- 
sion, and  ending  on  the  last  page  with  a  printed 
or  illustrated  impression. 


The  last  recorded  frame  on  each  microfiche 
shall  contain  the  symbol  — ^  (meaning  "CON- 
TINUED'),  or  the  symbol  V  (meaning  "END"), 
whichever  applies. 


Les  exemplaires  originaux  dont  la  couvertiire  en 
papier  est  imprim^e  sont  filmis  en  commen^ant 
par  le  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  soit  par  la 
dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration,  soit  par  le  second 
plat,  selon  le  cas.  Tous  les  autres  exemplaires 
originaux  sont  film6s  en  commenpant  par  la 
premidre  page  qui  comporte  une  empreinte 
d'impression  ou  d'illustration  et  en  terminant  par 
la  dernidre  page  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 

Un  des  symboles  suivants  apparaitra  sur  la 
dernidre  image  de  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
cas:  le  symbole  — »■  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbole  V  signifie  "FIN". 


Maps,  plates,  charts,  etc.,  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratios.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  exposure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hand  corner,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bottom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diagrams  illustrate  the 
method: 


Les  cartes,  planches,  tableaux,  etc.,  peuvent  dtre 
filmds  d  des  taux  de  reduction  diffdrents. 
Lorsque  le  document  est  trop  grand  pour  dtre 
reproduit  en  un  seul  cliche,  il  est  filmd  d  partir 
de  Tangle  supdrieur  gauche,  de  gauche  d  droite, 
et  de  haut  en  bas,  en  prenant  le  nombre 
d'images  ndcessaire.  Les  diagrammes  suivants 
illustren^  la  mdthode. 


irrata 
to 


pelure, 
n  d 


□ 


32X 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

■■■M 


ALASKA 


ITS   SOUTHERN    COAST 


AM) 


THE    SITKAN    ARCIIIFPXAGO 


BV 


E.    RUHAMAH    SCIDMORP: 


WITH    MAP  AND   ILLUSTRATIONS 


"Berlin,  Sept  5. —  We  have  seen  of  Germany  erumpli  to  show  that  its  climate 
is  neither  so  genial,  nor  its  soil  si,  fertile,  nor  it'>  resources  of  forests  and  mines  so 
rich  as  those  of  Soiitiiem  Alaska."  — /^'/7//;i;'/  //.  Snwrii  —  Travels  Around  tlu 
World,  Part  VI.  chap.  v.  page  708. 


BOSTON 
D.  LOTHROP   AND   COMPANY 

32  Franklin  Street 


nmMm-mmmv^^'mm 


p'^o^ 


'oA- 


265313       / 


Cofyris^ht,  by 
D.  I.oTiiKnr  AND  Company, 


Ei.ECTROTYPKD   BY 

C.  J.  I'l-Ti-Rs  AND  Sov,  Boston. 


t-r^*  »■•«■«  1*!J,1^T-''.-Ti'PY)«^:»^ftT*;'; 


PREFACE. 


Thesf.  chapters  arc  mainly  a  republication  of  the 
series  of  letters  appearin«i  in  the  columns  of  the 
S/.  Louis  Globc-Democmt  fXwx'Wig  the  summer  of  1883, 
and  in  the  St.  Louis  Globi'-Dvmocmt  and  the  New 
York  Times  (hiring  the  summer  of  1884.  To  readers 
of  those  journals,  and  to  many  exchange  editors,  who 
gave  further  circulation  to  the  letters,  they  may  carry 
familiar  echoes.  The  only  excuse  for  offering  them 
in  this  permanent  form  is  the  wish  that  the  compar- 
atively unknown  territory,  with  its  matchless  scenery 
and  many  attractions,  may  be  better  known,  and  a 
hope  that  those  who  visit  it  may  find  in  this  book 
information  that  will  add  to  their  interest  and  enjoy- 
ment of  the  trip. 

In  rearranging  the  original  letters  many  errors  have 
been  corrected  and  new  material  incorporated.  Dur- 
ing brief  summer  visits  it  was  impossible  to  make 
any  serious  study,  solve  the  mysteries  of  the  native 
people,  or  give  other  than  fleeting  sketches  of  their 
out-door  life  and  daily  customs.  Elaborate  resumes 
of  the  writings  of  Baron  VVrangell  and  Bishop  Venia- 
minoff  have  been  given  by  Professor  Dall  in  his  work 
on  "The  Resources  of  Alaska,"  and  by  Ivan  Petroff 
in  the  Census  Report  of  1880  (Vol.   IX.),  and  have 


111 


tr 


PREFACE. 


since  been  so  often  and  so  generally  quoted  as 
hardly  to  demand  another  introduction  to  those 
interested  in  ethnology.  Such  mention  as  I  have 
made  of  the  traditions  and  customs  of  the  Thlinkets 
is  condensed  from  many  deck  and  table  talks,  and 
from  conversations  with  teachers,  traders,  miners,  and 
government  officers  in  Alaska.  Wherever  possible, 
credit  has  been  given  to  the  original  sources  of 
information,  and  the  "Pacific  Coast  Pilot"  of  1883 
and  other  government  publications  have  been  freely 
consulted.  The  nomenclature  and  spelling  of  the 
"  Coast  Pilot "  have  been  followed,  although  to  its 
exactness  and  phonetic  severity  much  picturesqueness 
and  euphony  have  been  sacrificed. 

The  map  accompanying  the  book  is  a  reduced 
section  of  the  last  general  chart  of  Alaska  published 
by  the  United  States  Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey,  and 
is  reproduced  here  by  the  permission  of  the  compiler, 
Prof.  William  H.  Dall. 

Of  the  illustrations,  the  cut  of  the  Indian  grave  at 
Fort  Wrangell  was  one  accompanying  an  article 
published  ir.  Harper  s  Weekly,  August  30,  1884,  and 
other  pictures  have  been  presented  to  readers  of  the 
Wide  Aivakc  magazine  of  March,  1885.  For  views 
of  the  Davidson  glacier,  the  North  River,  and  the  top 
of  the  Muir  glacier,  and  the  interior  of  the  Greek 
Church  at  Sitka,  from  which  cuts  were  made,  I  am 
indebted  to  a  daring  and  successful  amateur  photo- 
grapher of  San  Francisco,  to  whom  especial  credit  is 
due. 

To  the  officers  of  the  ship  and  agents  of  the 
company  I  have  to  express  appreciation  of  the  favors 
and    courtesies    extended   by   them    to   my   friends 


.» 
•■-v 


PREFACE.  ▼ 

and  to  myself,  Kach  summer  I  bought  my  long 
purple  ticket,  reading  from  Portland  to  Sitka  and 
return,  with  pleasurable  anticipations  ;  and  all  of  them 
—  and  more  —  being  realized,  I  yielded  up  the  last 
coupons  with  regret. 

For  information  given  and  assistance  rendered  in 
the  course  of  this  work  I  am  under  obligations  to 
many  people.  I  would  particularly  make  my  ac- 
knowledgments in  this  place  to  Prof.  William  H. 
Dall,  Capt.  James  C.  Carroll,  Hon.  Frederic  W. 
Seward,  Prof.  John  Muir,  Prof.  George  Davidson, 
Capt.  R.  W.  Meade,  U.S.N.,  Capt.  C.  L.  Hooper, 
U.S.R.M.,  and  Hon.  J.  G.  Swan. 

E.    R.    S. 

Washington,  D.  C,  March  15,  1885. 


!■  £ 


■^■n 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTIR  I'A(;K 

I.  Thk,    Stari  — Port   Townsfnd  — Victoria —  Na- 
na i  mo    .    .         I 

II.  The  ItRiKSH  Columbia  Coast  and  Tongass          .  r6 

III.  Cai'E  Fox  and  \aha  Hav .  26 

IV.  Kasa  an  Hay 31 

V.  Fort  W'RANiiKi.i,  and  the  Stikink 46 

VI.  VVranuell  Narrows  ani»  Taku  (ii  a(  ikk;.     ...  72 
VII.  Ju., J .'. ,    SiLVKR    Bow   Basin,   and   Dougla>^s    Is- 
land Mines 81 

VIII.  The  Chilkat  Country 100 

IX.  Bartlett  Hay  and  the  IIooniahs 123 

X.  Muir  Glacier  and  Idaho  Inlet if 

XI.  Sitka  —  The  Castle  and  the  Oreek  Church  .    .  153 

XII.  Sitka  —  The  Indian  Rancherie 174 

XIII.  Sitka — Suhurus  and  Clim.ate 184 

XIV.  Sitka  — An  Historical  Sketch 198 

X.V.  Sitka — History  SucceediNci  the  Transfer     .    .  214 

yyi.  Education  in  Alaska 229 

XVTI.  Peril  Straits  and  Kootznahoo 236 

■CVIII.    KiLLISNOO   AND  TUV.    LaND  OE    KaKES 246 

XLX.  The  Prince  ok  Wales  Island   .    ....    .    •    •  258 

XX.  HowKAN.  or  Kaioahnke ,    ♦    .    .  269 

XXI.  The  Metlakatlah  Mission    .....»,..  280 

XXII.  Homeward  Bound 289 

XXIII.  Sealskins 300 

.>1XIV.  Ti*E  Treaty  and  Con(;ressional  Pajers  ....  315 


vu 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGB 

Map  of  Alaska Frontispiece 

Three  Carved  Spoons  and  Shaman's  Rattle 38 

Totem  Poles  at  Fonr  Wranuell 53 

CiRAVE  at  Fori"  Wrangeli 55 

Silver  Bracelets  and  Laurettes 61 

A  Thlinket  IUsket 90 

The  Davidson  Glacier 103 

Chilkat  Blanket 106 

Thlinket  Bird-IMpe  (Side  and  bottom) lr^ 

Diagram  of  the  Muir  Glacier 133 

River  on  North  Side  of  the  Muir  Glacier 137 

Glacier  Bay — Front  01   the  Muir  Glacier 141 

Section  of  the  Muir  Glacier  (Top) 144 

Section  of  the  Muir  Glacier  (Front) 147 

Sitka 155 

The  Greek  Church  at  Sitka 162 

Interior  of  the  Greek  Church  at  Sitka 165 

Easter  Decorations  in  the  Greek  Church  at  Sitka     .  167 

Basket  Weavers  at  Killisnoo 251 

Indian  Pipe 268 

ToiEM  Poles  at  Kaigahnee  or  IIowkan 273 

The  Chief's  Residence  at  Kaigahnee,  showing  Totem 

Poles 274 

Halibut  Hook 276 


Tiii 


V- :    i 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA 


AND 


THE    SITKAN    ARCHIPELAGO. 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE     START  —  PORT     TOWNSEND 

NANAIMO. 


VICTORIA  — 


ALTHOUGH  Alaska  is  nine  times  as  large  as 
the  group  of  New  England  States,  twice  the 
size  of  Texas,  and  three  times  that  of  California,  a 
false  impression  prevails  that  it  is  all  one  barren, 
inhospitable  region,  wrapped  in  snow  and  ice  the 
year  round.  The  fact  is  overlooked  that  a  territory 
stretching  more  than  a  thousand  miles  from  north  to 
south,  and  washed  by  the  warm  currents  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  may  have  a  great  range  and  diversity  of  cli- 
mate within  its  bor^lers.  The  jokes  and  exaggera- 
tions that  passed  current  at  the  time  of  the  Alaska 
purchase,  in  1867,  have  fastened  themselves  upon  the 
public  mind,  and  by  constant  repetition  been  accepted 
as  facts.  P'or  this  reason  the  uninitiated  view  the 
country  as  a  vast  ice  reservation,  and  appear  to  be- 
lieve that  even  the  summer  tourist  must  undergo  the 
perils  of  the  Franklin  Search  and  the  Greeley  Relief 
Expeditions  to  reach  any  part  of  Alaska.  The  official 
records  can  hardly  convince  them  that  the  winters  at 


imm 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


m\ 


Sitka  are  milder  than  at  New  York,  and  the  summers 
dehghtfully  cool  and  temperate. 

In  the  eastern  States  less  has  been  heard  of  the 
Yukon  than  of  the  country  of  the  Congo,  and  the 
wonders  of  the  Stikine,  Taku,  and  Chilkat  rivers  are 
unknown  to  those  who  have  travelled  far  to  view  the 
less  impressive  scenery  of  the  Scandinavian  coast. 
Americans  climb  the  well-worn  route  to  Alpine  sum- 
mits every  year,  while  the  highest  mountain  in  North 
America  is  unsurveyed,  and  only  approximate  esti- 
mates have  been  made  of  its  heights.  The  whole 
580,107  square  miles  of  the  territory  are  almost  as 
good  as  unexplored,  and  among  the  islands  of  the 
archipelago  over  7,000  miles  of  coast  are  untouched 
and  primeval  forests. 

The  Pribyloff  or  Seal  Islands  have  usurped  all 
interest  in  Alaska,  and  these  two  litiie  fog-bound 
islands  in  Behring  Sea,  that  are  too  small  to  be 
marked  on  an  ordinary  map,  have  had  more  attention 
drawn  to  them  than  any  other  part  of  the  territory. 
The  rental  of  the  islands  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  George, 
and  the  taxes  on  the  annual  one  hundred  thousand 
sealskins,  pays  into  the  treasury  each  year  more  than 
four  per  cent  interest  on  the  $7,200,000  originally 
paid  to  Russia  for  its  possessions  in  North  America. 
This  fact  is  unique  in  the  history  of  our  purchased 
territories,  and  justifies  Secretary  Seward's  efforts  in 
acquiring  it. 

The  neglect  of  Congress  to  provide  any  for  in  of 
civil  government  or  protection  for  the  inhabitmts 
checked  all  progress  and  enterprise,  and  kept  the 
country  in  the  background  for  seventeen  years.  With 
the  development  of  the  Pacific  northwest,  settlements, 


M 


THE  SITE  AN  ARCHIPELAGO.  o 

mining-camps,  and  fisheries  have  been  slowly  growing, 
and  increasing  in  numbers  in  the  southeastern  part  of 
Alaska,  adjoining  British  Columbia.  The  prospec- 
tors and  the  hardy  pioneers,  who  seek  the  setting  sun 
and  follow  the  frontiers  westward,  were  attracted 
there  by  the  gold  discoveries  in  1880,  and  the  impetus 
then  given  was  not  allowed  to  subside. 

Pleasure-travellers  have  followed  the  prospectors* 
lead,  as  it  became  known  that  some  of  the  grandest 
scenery  of  the  continent  is  to  be  found  along  the 
Alaska  coast,  in  the  region  of  the  Alexander  or  Sitkan 
Archipelago,  and  the  monthly  mail  steamer  is  crowded 
with  tourists  during  the  summer  season.  It  is  one  of 
the  easiest  and  most  delightful  trips  to  go  up  the 
coast  by  the  inside  passage  and  cruise  through  the 
archipelago ;  and  in  voyaging  past  the  unbroken  wil- 
derness of  the  island  shores,  the  tourist  feels  quite 
like  an  explorer  penetrating  unknown  lands.  The 
mountain  range  that  walls  the  Pacific  coast  from  the 
Antarctic  to  the  Arctic  gives  a  bold  and  broken  front 
to  the  mainland,  and  everyone  of  the  eleven  hundred 
islands  of  the  archipelago  is  but  a  submerged  spur  or 
peak  of  the  great  range.  Many  of  the  islands  are 
larger  than  Massachusetts  or  New  Jersey,  but  none 
of  them  have  been  wholly  explored,  nor  is  the  survey 
of  their  shores  completed.  The  Yosemite  walls  and 
cascades  are  repeated  in  mile  after  mile  of  deep  salt- 
water channels,  and  from  the  deck  of  an  ocean 
steamer  one  views  scenes  not  paralleled  after  long 
rides  and  climbs  in  the  heart  of  the  Sierras.  The 
gorges  and  cafions  of  Colorado  are  surpassed  ;  moun- 
tains that  tower  above  Pike's  Peak  rise  in  steep  in- 
cline from  the  still  level  of  the  sea ;  and  the  shores 


*  SOVTHERy   ALASKA. 

arc  clothed  with  forests  and  undergrowth  dense  and 
impassable  as  the  tangle  of  a  Florida  swamp.  On 
these  summer  trips  the  ship  runs  into  the  famous 
inlets  on  the  mainland  shore  and  anchors  before  vast 
glaciers  that  push  their  icy  fronts  down  into  the  sea. 
The  still  waters  of  the  inside  passr.ge  give  smooth 
sailing  nearly  all  of  the  way ;  and,  living  on  an  ocean 
steamer  for  three  and  four  weeks,  one  only  feels  the 
heaving  of  the  Pacific  swells  while  crossing  the  short 
stretches  of  Queen  Charlotte  Sound  and  Dixon  En- 
trance. 

The  Alaska  steamer,  however,  is  a  perfect  will  o'  the 
wisp  for  a  landsman  to  pursue,  starting  sometimes 
from  Portland  and  sometimes  from  San  Francisco, 
adapting  its  schedule  to  emergencies  and  going  as 
the  exigencies  of  the  cargo  demand.  It  clears  from 
Puget  Sound  ports  generally  during  the  first  days  of 
each  month,  but  in  midwinter  it  arranges  its  depar- 
ture so  as  to  have  the  light  of  the  full  moon  in  the 
northern  ports,  where  the  sun  sets  at  three  and  four 
o'clock  on  December  afternoons. 

When  the  steamer  leaves  Portland  for  Alaska,  it 
goes  down  the  Columbia  River,  up  the  coast  of  Wash- 
ington Territory,  and,  reaching  Victoria  and  Port 
Townsend  three  days  later,  takes  on  the  mails,  and 
the  freight  shipped  from  San  Francisco,  and  then 
clears  for  the  north.  The  traveller  who  dreads  the 
Columbia  River  bar  and  the  open  ocean  can  go  across 
overland  to  Puget  Sound,  and  thence  by  the  Sound 
steamers  to  whichever  port  the  Alaska  steamer  may 
please  to  anchor  in. 

The  first  time  that  I  essayed  the  Alaska  trip, 
the  steamship  /fh//o  with  its  shining  b^ack  hull,  its 


1 


4? 


i 


THE  SITKAN  ABCtllPELAGO.  9 

ti  im  spars,  and  row  of  white  cabins  on  deck,  slipped 
down  the  Columbia  River  one  Friday  night,  and  on 
Monday  morning  we  left  Portland  to  overtake  it.  It 
was  a  time  of  forest  fires,  and  a  cloud  of  ignorance 
brooded  over  Puget  Sound,  only  equalled  in  density 
by  the  clouds  of  smoke  that  rolled  from  the  burning 
forests  on  shore,  and  there  was  an  appalling  scarcity 
of  shipping  news.  The  telegraph  lines  were  down 
between  the  most  important  points,  and  the  Fourth 
of  July  fever  was  burning  so  fiercely  in  patriotic  veins 
that  no  man  had  a  clear  enough  brain  to  tell  us  where 
the  ship  /(/a/io  was,  had  gone  to,  or  was  going  to. 
For  two  restless  and  uncertain  days  we  see-sawed 
from  British  to  American  soil,  going  back  and  forth 
from  Victoria  to  Port  Townsend  as  we  were  in  turn  as- 
sured that  the  ship  lay  at  anchor  at  one  place,  would 
not  go  to  the  other,  and  that  we  ran  the  risk  of  losing 
the  whole  trip  if  we  did  not  immediately  embark  for 
the  opposite  shore.  The  dock  hands  came  to  know 
us,  the  pilots  touched  their  hats  to  us,  the  agents 
fled  from  their  ticket-offices  at  sight  of  us,  and  I  think 
even  the  custom-house  officers  must  have  watched 
suspiciously,  when  the  same  two  women  and  one 
small  boy  paced  impatiently  up  and  down  the  various 
wharves  at  that  end  of  Pusfet  Sound.  We  saw  the 
Union  Jack  float  and  heard  the  American  eagle 
scream  on  the  I'ourth  of  July,  and  after  a  night  of 
fire-crackers,  bombs,  and  inebriate  chorus-singing, 
the  /da/io  came  slipping  into  the  harbor  of  Port 
Townsend  as  innocently  as  a  messenger  of  peace, 
and  fired  a  shot  from  a  wicked  little  cannon,  that 
started  the  very  foundations  of  the  town  with  its 
echoes. 


tl 


O  SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 

Port  Townsend,  at  the  entrance  of  Puget  Scumd,  is 
the  last  port  of  entry  and  custom-house  in  the  United 
States,  and  the  real  point  of  departure  for  the  Alaska 
steamers.  It  was  named  by  Vancouver  in  1792  for 
his  friend,  "  the  most  noble  Marquis  of  Townsend," 
and  scorning  the  rivalry  of  the  new  towns  at  the 
head  of  Puget  Sound,  believes  itself  destined  to  be 
the  final  railway  terminus  and  the  future  great  city  of 
this  extreme  northwest  The  busy  and  thriving  little 
town  lies  at  the  foot  of  a  steep  bluff,  and  an  outlying 
suburb  of  residences  stretches  along  the  grassy 
heights  above.  A  steep  stairway,  and  several  zig-zag 
walks  and  roads  connect  the  business  part  of  Port 
Townsend  with  the  upper  town,  and  it  argues  strong 
lungs  and  a  goat-like  capacity  for  climbing  on  the 
part  of  the  residents,  who  go  up  and  down  the  stair- 
way several  times  a  day.  /\  marine  hospital  flies  the 
national  flag  from  a  point  on  the  bluff,  and  four  miles 
west  on  the  curve  of  the  bay  lies  Fort  Townsend, 
where  a  handful  of  United  States  troops  keep  up  the 
traditions  of  an  army  and  a  military  post.  Near  the 
fort  is  the  small  settlement  of  IrondrJe,  where  the 
crude  bog  ore  of  the  spot  is  successfully  melted  with 
Texada  iron  ore,  brought  from  a  small  island  in  the 
Gulf  of  Georgia.  The  sand  spit  on  which  Port 
Townsend  society  holds  its  summer  clam-bakes,  and 
the  home  of  the  '  Duke  of  York,"  the  venerable 
chief  0*"  the  Clallam  tribe,  are  points  of  interest 
about  the  shores.  * 

Across  the  Straits  of  Fuca  there  is  the  pretty 
English  town  of  Victoria,  that  has  as  solid  mansions, 
as  well-built  roads,  and  as  many  country  homes 
around  it,  as  any  little  town  on  the  home  island.     It 


I 


THE  SITKA X   ARdllPELAGO.  * 

has  an  intricate  lantl-locked  harbor,  where  the  tides 
rush  in  and  out  in  a  way  that  defies  reason,  and  none 
have  ever  yet  been  able  to  solve  the  puzzle  and 
make  out  a  tide-table  for  that  harbor.  All  Victoria 
breathes  the  atmosphere  of  a  past  and  greater  gran- 
deur, and  the  citizens  feelingly  revert  to  the  time 
when  British  Columbia  was  a  separate  colony  by 
itself,  and  Victoria  the  seat  of  the  miniature  court 
of  the  Governor-General  and  commander-in-chief  of 
its  forces.  There  is  no  real  joy  in  the  celebration 
of  "Dominion  Day,"  which  reminds  them  of  how 
British  Columbia  and  the  two  provinces  of  Canada 
were  made  one  under  the  specious  promise  of  a  con- 
necting railway.  Recent  visits  of  Lord  Dufferin  and 
the  Marquis  of  Lome  stilled  some  of  the  disaffec- 
tion, and  threats  of  annexation  to  the  United  States 
are  less  frequent  now. 

Victoria  has  "  the  perfect  climate,"  according  to  the 
Princess  Louise  and  other  sojourners,  and  there  is  a 
peace  and  rest  in  the  atmosphere  that  charms  the 
briefest  visitor.  Every  one  takes  life  easily,  and 
things  move  in  a  slow  and  accustomed  groove,  as  if 
sanctioned  by  the  custom  of  centuries  on  the  same 
spot.  Business  men  hardly  get  down  town  before  ten 
o'clock  in  the  morning,  and  by  four  in  the  afternoon 
they  are  striding  and  riding  off  to  their  homes,  as  if 
the  fever  and  activity  of  American  trade  and  compe- 
tition were  far  away  and  unheard  of.  The  clerk  at 
the  post-office  window  turns  a  look  of  surprise  upon 
the  stranger,  and  bids  him  go  across  the  street,  or 
down  a  block,  and  buy  his  postage-stamps  at  a  sta- 
tioner's shop,  to  be  sure. 

The  second  summer  that  my  compass  was  set  for 


!'l 


8 


so UriIEUS   A  LA  S KA . 


1 


the  nor'-norwest,  our  party  of  three  spent  a  week  at 
Victoria  before  the  steamer  came  in  from  San  P'ran- 
cisco,  and  the  charm  of  the  place  grew  upon  us  every 
day.  The  drives  about  the  town,  along  the  island 
shores,  and  through  the  woods,  are  beautiful,  and  the 
heavy,  London-built  carriages  roll  over  hard  and  per- 
fect English  highways.  Ferns,  growing  ten  and 
twelve  feet  high  by  the  roadside,  amazed  us  beyond 
expression,  until  a  loyal  and  veracious  citizen  of 
Oregon  assured  us  that  ferns  eighteen  feet  high  could 
be  found  anywhere  in  the  woods  back  of  Astoria ,  and 
that  he  had  often  been  lost  in  fern  prairies  among  the 
Cascade  mountains,  where  the  fronds  arched  far  above 
his  head  when  he  was  mounted  on  a  horse.  Wild 
rose-bushes  are  matted  together  by  the  acre  in  the 
clearings  about  the  town,  and  in  June  they  weight  the 
air  with  their  perfume,  as  they  did  a  century  ago, 
when  Marchand,  the  old  French  voyager,  compared 
the  region  to  the  rose-covered  slopes  of  Bulgaria. 
The  honeysuckle  attains  the  greatest  perfection  in 
this  climate,  and  covers  and  smothers  the  cottages 
and  trellises  with  thickly-set  blossoms.  F2ven  the 
currant-bushes  grow  to  unusual  height,  and  in  many 
gardens  they  are  trained  on  arbors  and  hang  their 
red,  ripe  clusters  high  overhead. 

For  a  few  days  we  watched  anxiously  every  trail  of 
smoke  in  the  Straits  of  Fuca,  and  at  last  welcomed 
the  ship,  one  sunny  morning,  when  the  whole  Olymjiic 
range  stood  like  a  sapphire  wall  across  the  Straits, 
and  the  Angels'  Gate  gave  a  clear  view  of  more 
azure  slopes  and  snow-tipped  summits  through  that 
gap  in  the  mountain  front.  Instead  of  the  trim 
propeller  Idahoj  the  old  side-wheeler,  the  Ancoji,  was 


5 


;; 


.1  < 


THE  SITKAN  AlWlllPELAQO. 


9 


put  on  the  Alaska  route  for  the  summer  months, 
and  the  fact  of  its  haviny;  taken  five  days  for  the  trip 
up  from  San  Francisco  did  not  prepossess  us  with 
any  false  notions  of  its  speed.  The  same  captain 
and  officers  from  the  hfa/io  were  on  board,  and  after 
making  the  tour  of  Puget  Sound  again,  we  were  quite 
resigned  to  the  change  of  ships  by  the  time  we 
finally  left  Victoria. 

At  Victoria  the  steward  buys  his  last  su.)plies 
for  the  coming  weeks  of  great  appetites ;  for  with 
smooth  water  and  the  tonic  of  sea  and  mountain 
air  both,  the  passengers  make  great  inroads  on  the 
ship's  stores.  The  captain  often  affects  dismay  at 
the  way  the  provisions  disappear,  and  threatens  to 
take  an  account  of  stores  at  Sitka  and  bring  the  ship 
down  by  the  outside  passage  in  order  to  save  some 
profit  for  the  company.  During  the  last  hours  at 
the  Victoria  wharf,  several  wagon -loads  of  meat  had 
been  put  in  the  ice-boxes  of  the  Af/con,  when  some 
live  beef  came  thundering  down  the  wharf,  driven 
by  hallooing  horsemen.  Each  month  the  ship  takes 
up  these  live  cattle  and  sheep,  and  leaving  them  to 
fatten  on  the  luxurious  grasses  of  Sitka,  insures  ? 
fresh  supply  of  fresh  beef  for  the  return  voyage.  It 
was  within  half  an  hour  of  sailing-time  when  the 
herders  drove  the  sleek  fellows  down  to  the  wharf, 
and  for  an  hour  there  was  a  scene  that  surpassed  any- 
thing under  a  circus  tent  or  within  a  Spanish  arena. 
The  sailors  and  stevedores  had  a  proper  respect  for 
the  bellowing  beasts,  and  kept  their  distance,  as  they 
barricaded  them  into  a  corner  of  the  wharf.  The 
ship's  officer  who  had  charge  of  loading  the  cargo  is  "a 
salt,  salt  sailor,"  with  a  florid  complexion ;  and  it  was 


V    7i    P. 

!|tf- 


Ill 


10 


HO  urn  Kit  y  a  la  ska  . 


11 


his  brave  part  to  advance,  flap  his  arms,  and  say 
"  Shoo ! "  and  then  fly  behind  the  first  man  or  barrel, 
or  dodge  into  the  warehouse  door.  The  crowd  gath- 
ered and  increased,  the  eighty  passengers,  disregard- 
ing all  signs  and  rules,  mounted  on  the  paddle-boxes 
and  clung  to  the  ratlines  forward,  applauded  the 
picador  and  the  matador,  and  hummed  suggestive  airs 
from  CartHin.  When  the  lasso  was  fastened  round 
one  creature's  horns,  and  his  head  was  drawn  down 
close  to  a  pile,  there  were  nervous  moments  when  we 
waited  to  see  the  herder  tossed  on  high,  or  else  vol- 
untarily leaping  into  the  water  to  escape  the  savage 
prods  of  the  enraged  beast.  Theie  was  great  delay 
in  getting  the  belts  ready  to  put  round  the  animals 
so  that  they  could  be  swung  over  into  the  ship,  and 
while  the  great  bull-fight  was  in  progress  and  the 
hour  of  sailing  had  come,  the  captain  rode  down  the 
wharf  in  a  carriage,  strode  on  to  the  ship  and  de- 
manded, in  a  stiff,  official  tone,  "  How  long  have  these 
cattle  been  here  .^ "  "  More  than  an  hour,  sir,  replied 
the  mate.  "  Turn  those  cattle  loose  and  draw  in  the 
gang-plank,"  was  the  brief  order  from  the  bridge,  and 
the  one  warning  shriek  of  the  whistle  scattered  the 
spectators  and  sent  the  excited  beasts  galloping  up 
the  wharf.  While  the  gang-plank  was  being  with- 
drawn, two  Chinamen  came  down  on  a  dog  trot, 
hidden  under  bundles  of  blankets,  with  balanced  bas- 
kets across  their  shoulders,  and  pickaxes,  pans,  and 
mining  tools  in  their  arms.  Without  a  tremor  the 
two  Johns  walked  out  on  the  swaying  plank,  and, 
stepping  across  a  gap  of  more  than  two  feet,  landed 
safely  on  deck,  bound  and  equipped  for  the  deserted 
placer  mines  on  Stikine  River. 


TIIK  SlTKAN  AUCUIPKLAGO. 


11 


We  left  Victoria  at  noon,  and  all  the  afternoon 
the  passengers  gave  their  preliminary  ohs  !  and  ahs ! 
strewed  the  decks  with  exclamation  points,  and  buried 
their  heads  in  tlicir  pink-covered  maps  of  British 
Columbia,  while  the  ship  ran  through  narrow  chan- 
nels and  turned  sharp  curves  around  the  picturesque 
islands  for  the  possession  of  which  England  and 
America  nearly  went  to  war.  San  Juan  Island,  with  its 
limekilns,  its  gardens,  meadows,  and  browsing  sheep, 
was  as  pretty  and  pastoral  a  spot  as  nations  ever 
wrangled  about,  and  the  F^mperor  of  Germany  did 
just  the  right  thing  when  he  drew  his  imperial  pencil 
across  the  maps  and  gave  this  garden  spot  of  San 
Juan  to  the  United  States.  The  beautiful  scenery  of 
the  lower  end  of  the  Gulf  of  Georgia  fitly  introduces 
one  to  the  beauties  of  the  inland  passage  whi  h  winds 
for  nearly  a  thousand  miles  between  the  islands  that 
fringe  this  northwest  coast,  and  even  the  most  cap- 
tious travellers  forgot  fancied  grievances  over  state- 
rooms, table  seats,  and  baggage  regulations.  The 
exhausted  purser,  who  had  been  persecuted  all  day 
by  clamoring  passengers  and  anxious  shippers,  was 
given  a  respite,  and  all  was  peace,  satisfaction,  and  joy 
on  board.  In  the  nine  o'clock  gloaming  we  rounded 
the  most  northern  lighthouse  that  gleams  on  this 
shore  of  the  Pacific,  and,  winding  in  and  through  the 
harbor  of  Nanaimo,  dropped  anchor  in  Departure 
Bay. 

The  coal  mines  of  Nanaimo  have  given  it  a  com- 
mercial importance  upon  which  it  bases  hopes  of  a 
great  future ;  but  it  has  no  bu.stling  air  to  it,  to  im- 
press the  stranger  from  over  the  border  with  that 
prospect.     In  early  days  it  was  an  important  trading- 


murnm 


M!    S 


12 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


; 

i 

1 

jl 

iM 

ri 

M 

t  ;1M 


■■■'fl 


post  of  the  Hudson  Bay  Company,  and  a  quaint  old 
block-house  still  stands  as  a  relic  of  the  times  when 
the  Indian  canoes  used  to  blacken  the  beach  at  the 
seasons  of  the  great  trades.  The  traders  first  opened 
the  coal  seams  near  Nanaimo,  and  thirty  years  ago 
used  to  pay  the  Indians  one  blanket  for  every  eight 
barrels  of  coal  brought  out. 

Geologists  have  hammered  their  way  all  up  the 
Pacific  Coast  without  finding  a  trace  of  true  coal,  and 
on  account  of  the  recent  geological  formation  of  the 
country  they  consider  further  search  useless.  The 
nearest  to  true  coal  that  has  been  found  was  the  coal 
seam  on  the  Arctic  shore  of  Alaska  near  Cape  Lis- 
burn.  Captain  Hooper,  U.  S.  R.  M.,  found  the  vein, 
and  his  vessel,  the  CoriviN,  was  supplied  with  coal 
from  it  during  an  Arctic  cruise  in  1880.  Otherwise, 
the  lignite  beds  of  Vancouver  Island  supply  the  best 
steaming  coal  that  can  be  had  on  the  coast,  and  a 
fleet  of  colliers  ply  between  Nanaimo  and  the  chief 
ports  on  the  Pacific. 

The  mines  nearest  the  town  of  Nanaimo  were  ex- 
hausted soon  after  they  were  worked  systematically, 
and  operations  were  transferred  to  Newcastle  Island 
in  the  harbor  opposite  the  town.  A  great  fire  in 
the  Newcastle  mine  obliged  the  owners  to  close  and 
abandon  it,  and  the  whole  place  stands  as  it  was 
left,  the  cabins  and  works  dropping  slowly  to  decay. 
Even  the  quarry  from  which  the  fine  stone  was  taken 
for  the  United  States  Mint  at  San  Francisco  is  aban- 
doned, and  its  broken  derricks  and  refuse  heaps 
make  a  forlorn  break  in  the  beauty  of  the  mild 
shores  of  the  island.  , 

Richard  Dunsmuir  found  the  Wellington  mines  at 


THE   SITK.XN   AUnilPELAGO. 


13 


Departure  Bay  by  accident,  his  horse  stumbling  on  a 
piece  of  lignite  coal  as  he  rode  down  through  the 
woods  one  day.  The  admiral  of  the  British  fleet  and 
one  other  partner  ventured  ^'i,ooo  each  in  develop- 
ing the  mine,  and  at  the  end  of  ten  years  the  admiral 
withdrew  with  ^$0,000  as  his  share,  and  c.  year  since 
the  other  partner  sold  out  his  interests  to  Mr.  Duns- 
muir  for  ^150,000.  At  present  the  mines  pay  a 
monthly  profit  of  /^8,ooo,  and  Yankee  engineers  claim 
that  that  income  might  be  doubled  if  the  mines  were 
worked  on  a  larger  scale,  as,  with  duty  included,  this 
black  lignite  commands  the  highest  price  and  is  most 
in  demand  in  all  the  cities  of  California  and  Oregon. 
Mr.  Dunsmuir  is  the  prime  mover  in  building  the 
Island  railway,  which  is  to  connect  Nanaimo  with  the 
naval  harbor  of  Esquimault  near  Victoria.  Charles 
Crocker  and  Leland  Stanford  of  the  Central  Pacific 
road  are  connected  with  Mr.  Dunsmuir  in  this  under- 
taking, and  to  induce  these  capitalists  to  take  hold  of 
it  the  colonial  government  gave  a  land  grant  twenty- 
five  miles  wide  along  the  whole  seventy  miles  of  the 
railroad,  with  .dl  the  timber  and  mineral  included. 

The  great  Wellington  mines  have  had  their  strikes, 
and  after  the  last  one  the  white  workmen  were  sup- 
planted by  Chinese,  who,  though  wanting  the  brawn 
and  muscle  of  die  Irishmen,  could  work  in  the  sulphur 
formations  without  injuring  their  eyes.  By  an  explo- 
sion of  fire-damp  in  Ma)-,  1884,  many  lives  were  lost, 
and  gloom  was  cast  over  the  little  settlement  on  the 
sunny  bay. 

On  this  lee  shore  of  Vancouver  Island  the  climate 
is  even  softer  and  milder  than  at  Victoria,  and  during 
my  three  visits  Nanaimo  has  always  been  steeped  in 


i; 


14 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA, 


a  golden  calm  of  steady  sunshine.  While  waiting  for 
the  three  or  four  hundred  tons  of  coal  to  be  dropped 
into  the  hold,  carload  by  carload,  the  passengers 
amuse  themselves  by  visiting  the  quiet  little  town, 
stirring  up  the  local  trade,  and  busying  the  post- 
master and  the  telegraph  operator  A  small  boy 
steers  and  commands  the  comical  little  steam-tug  that 
is  omnibus  and  street  car  for  the  Nanaimo  and  Well- 
ington people,  and  makes  great  profits  while  passen- 
ger steamers  are  coaling. 

When  all  the  anglers,  the  hunters,  the  botanists 
and  the  geologists  had  gone  their  several  ways 
from  the  ship  one  coaling  day,  the  captain  made  a 
diversion  for  the  score  of  ladies  left  behind,  by  order- 
ing out  a  lifeboat,  and  having  the  little  tug  tow  us 
around  the  bay  and  over  to  Nanaimo.  When  the 
ladies  had  all  scattered  into  the  various  shops,  the  cap- 
tain made  the  tour  of  the  town  and  found  that  there 
was  not  a  trout  to  be  had  in  that  market.  Then  he 
arranged  that  if  the  returning  fishermen  came  back 
to  the  ship  in  the  evening  and  laid  their  strings  of 
trout  triumphantly  on  deck,  a  couple  of  Indians  should 
force  their  way  into  the  admiring  crowd  and  demand 
pay  for  fish  sold  to  the  anglers.  Can  any  one  pic- 
ture that  scene  and  the  effect  of  the  joke,  when  it 
dawned  upon  the  group } 

A  great  bonfire  on  the  beach  in  the  evening 
rounded  off  that  coaling  day,  and  the  captain  de- 
clared the  celebration  to  be  in  honor  of  Cleveland 
and  Hendricks,  who  had  that  day  been  nominated 
at  the  National  Democratic  Convention  in  Chicago. 
AlthoMgh  the  partisans  of  the  other  side  declined  to 
consider  it  a  ratification  meeting  on  British  soil,  they 


i 


I 


^'"If'l 


THE  SITKAN  ARCHIPELAGO. 


16 


helped  heap  up  the  burning  logs  and  drift-wood  until 
the  whole  bay  was  lighted  with  the  flame  ^>.  With 
blue  lights,  fire-crackers,  rockets  and  pistol -popping 
the  f^te  continued,  the  Republicans  deriding  ail 
boasts  and  prophecies  of  their  opponents,  until  the 
commander  threatened  to  drop  them  on  some  de- 
serted island  off  the  course,  until  after  the  election. 
History  has  since  set  its  seal  upon  the  prophecies 
then  made,  and  some  of  the  modest  participants  of 
the  Democratic  faith  think  their  international  bon- 
fire assisted  in  the  result. 


i 


16 


.so VTllElt S   ALASKA. 


CHAPTER    II. 


THE    BRITISH    COLUMBIA    COAST   AND   TONGASS. 


IF  Claude  Mclnotte  had  wanted  to  paint  a  fairer 
picture  to  his  lady,  he  should  have  told  Pauline 
of  this  glorious  northwest  coast,  fringed  with  islands, 
seamed  with  fathomless  channels  of  clear,  green,  sea 
wat(?r,  and  basking  in  the  soft,  mellow  radiance  of  this 
summer  sunshine  The  scenery  gains  everything 
fronj  being  translated  through  the  medium  of  a  soft, 
pearly  atmosi)here,  where  the  light  is  as  gray  and 
evenly  diffused  as  in  Old  England  itself.  The  dis- 
tant mountain  ranges  are  lost  in  the  blue  vaporous 
shadows,  and  nearer  at  hand  the  masses  and  outlines 
show  in  their  i)ure  contour  without  the  obtrusion  of 
all  the  garish  details  that  rob  so  many  western  moun- 
tain scenes  of  their  grander  effects.  The  calm  of  the 
brooding  air,  the  shimmer  of  the  opaline  sea  around 
one,  and  the  ranges  of  green  and  russet  hills,  misty 
purple  mountains,  and  snowy  summits  on  the  faint 
horizon,  give  a  dream-like  coloring  to  all  one's 
thoughts,  A  member  of  the  Canadian  Parliament,  in 
speaking  of  this  coast  country  of  British  Columbia, 
called  it  the  '*sea  of  mountains  "  and  the  channels  of 
the  ocean  through  which  one  winds  for  days  are  but  as 
endless  valleys  and  stecji  cartons  between  the  peaks 
and  ranges  that  rise  abruptly  from  the  water's  edge. 


- 

\ 


.;    I 


' 


THE  SITKAN  AliCHIPELAGO. 


17 


Only  the  fiords  and  inlets  of  the  coast  of  Norway, 
and  the  wooded  islands  in  the  Inland  Sea  of  Japan, 
present  anything  like  a  counterpart  to  the  wonderful 
scenery  of  these  archipelagos  of  the  North  Pacific. 
From  the  head  of  Puget  Sound  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Chilkat  River  there  are  seven  hundred  and  thirty-two 
miles  of  latitude,  and  the  trend  of  the  coast  and  the 
ship's  windings  between  and  around  the  islands  make 
it  an  actual  voyage  of  more  than  a  thousand  miles 
on  inland  waters. 

The  Strait  or  Gulf  of  Georgia,  that  separates  Van- 
couver's Island  from  the  mainland,  although  widening 
at  times  to  forty  miles,  is  for  the  most  part  like  a 
broad  river  or  lake,  landlocked,  walled  by  high  moun- 
tain ranges  on  both  sides,  and  choked  at  either  end 
with  groups  of  islands.  The  mighty  current  of  the 
Frazer  River  rolls  a  pale  green  flood  of  fresh  water 
into  it  at  the  southern  entrance,  and  the  river  water, 
with  its  different  density  and  temperature  floating  on 
the  salt  water,  and  cutting  through  it  in  a  body,  shows 
everywhere  a  sharply  defined  line  of  separation.  In 
the  broad  channels  schools  of  whales  are  often  seen 
spouting  and  leaping,  and  on  a  lazy,  sunny  afternoon, 
while  even  the  mountains  seemed  dozing  in  the  wave- 
less  calm,  the  idlers  on  the  after  deck  were  roused  by 
the  cry  of  "Whales !"  For  an  hour  we  watched  the 
frolicking  of  the  snorting  monsters,  as  they  spouted 
jets  of  water,  arched  their  black  backs  and  fins  above 
the  surface,  and  then  disappeared  with  perpendicular 
whisks  of  their  huge  tails 

Toward  the  north  end  of  Vancouver's  Island,  where 
Valdes  Island  is  wedged  in  between  it  and  the  main- 
land shore,  the  ship  enters  Discovery  Pass,  in  which 


18 


SOUTIlEliN  ALAHKA. 


M 


are  the  dangerous  tide  rips  of  Seymour  Narrows.  The 
tides  rushing  in  and  out  of  t:ip.  Strait  of  Georgia  dash 
through  this  rocky  gorge  at  the  rate  of  four  and  eight 
knots  an  hour  on  the  turn,  and  the  navigators  time 
their  sailing  hours  so  as  to  reach  this  perilous  place 
in  daylight  and  at  the  flood  tide.  Even  at  that  time 
the  water  boils  in  smooth  eddies  and  deep  whirlpools, 
and  a  ship  is  whirled  half  round  on  its  course  as  it 
threads  the  narrow  pass  between  the  reefs.  At  other 
times  the  water  dashes  over  the  rapids  and  raises 
great  waves  that  beat  back  an  opposing  bow,  and  the 
dullest  landsman  on  the  largest  ship  appreciates  the 
real  dangers  of  the  run  through  this  wild  ravine, 
where  the  wind  races  with  the  water  and  howls  in 
the  rigging  after  the  most  approved  fashion  for  thrill- 
ing^narine  adventures.  Nautical  gossips  tell  one  of 
vessels  that,  steaming  against  the  furious  tide,  have 
had  their  paddle  wheels  reversed  by  its  superior 
strength,  and  have  been  swept  back  to  wait  the  favor- 
able minutes  of  slack  water.  Others,  caught  by  the 
opposing  current,  are  said  to  have  been  slt)wly  forced 
back,  or,  steaming  at  full  speed,  have  not  gained  an 
inch  of  headway  for  two  hours.  The  rise  and  fall  of 
the  tides  is  thirteen  feet  in  these  narrows,  and  al- 
though there  are  from  twenty  to  sixty  fathoms  of 
water  in  the  true  channel,  there  is  an  ugly  ledge  and 
isolated  rocks  in  the  middle  of  the  pass  on  which 
there  arc  only  two  and  a  quarter  fathoms.  Long  be- 
fore Vancouver  carried  his  victorious  ensign  through 
these  li  ;nown  waters,  the  Indians  had  known  and 
dreade  ^hese  rapids  as  the  abode  of  an  evil  spirit, 
and  for  iialf  a  century  the  adventurous  Hudson  Bay 
traders  went  warily  through  the  raging  whirlpools. 


: 


Ai 


THE  SITKAN  ARCHIPELAGO. 


19 


:$ 


If 


Although  the  British  Admiralty  have  made  careful 
surveys,  and  the  charts  are  in  the  main  accurate, 
there  have  been  serious  wrecks  on  this  part  of  the 
coast.  The  United  States  man-of-war  Sarauac  was 
lost  in  Seymour  Narrows  on  the  i8th  of  June,  1875. 
The  Sarauac  was  an  old  side-wheel  steamer  of  the 
second  rate  in  naval  classification,  carrying  eleven 
guns,  and  was  making  its  third  trip  to  Alaskan 
waters.  There  was  an  unusually  low  tide  the  morn- 
ing the  Sarauac  entered  the  pass,  and  the  ship  was 
soon  caught  in  the  wild  current,  and  sent  broadside 
on  to  the  mid-rock.  It  swung  off,  and  was  headed 
for  the  Vancouver  shore,  and  made  fast  with  hawsers 
to  the  trees,  but  there  was  only  time  to  lower  a  boat 
with  provisions  and  the  more  important  papers  before 
the  Sarauac  sunk,  and  not  even  the  masts  were  left 
visible.  The  men  camped  on  shore  while  a  party 
went  in  the  small  boats  to  Nanaimo  for  help.  No 
attempt  was  ever  made  to  raise  the  ship,  and  in  the 
investigation  it  was  shown  that  the  boilers  were  in 
such  a  condition  when  they  reached  Victoria,  that 
striking  the  rock  in  Seymour  Narrows  was  only  one 
of  the  perils  that  awaited  those  on  board.  No  lives 
were  lost  by  this  disaster,  and  Dr.  Bessels,  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institute,  who  was  on  his  way  up  the  coast 
to  make  a  collection  of  Indian  relics  for  the  Centen- 
nial Exposition,  showed  a  scientist's  zeal  in  merely 
regretting  the  delay,  and  continuing  on  his  journey 
by  the  first  available  craft.  In  April,  1883,  the 
steamer  Grapplcr,  which  plied  between  Victoria  and 
the  trading-posts  on  the  west  coast,  took  fire  late  at 
night,  just  as  it  was  entering  Seymour  Narrows. 
The  flames  reached    the   hempen  rudder-ropes,  and 


20 


HOUTIlERy   ALASKA, 


V\ 


the  boat  was  soon  helplessly  drifting  into  the  rapids. 
Flames  and  clouds  of  smoke  made  it  difficult  to 
launch  the  boats,  antl  all  but  one  were  swamped. 
The  frantic  passengers  leaped  overboard  while  the 
ship  was  whirling  and  careening  in  the  rapids,  and 
the  captain,  with  life-preserver  on,  was  swept  off, 
and  disappeared  in  midstream.  The  Grapplcr  finally 
drifted  in  to  the  Vancouver  shore,  and  burned  until 
daylight.  Another  United  States  war  vessel,  the 
Suwani'c  was  lost  a  hundred  miles  beyond  the  Sey- 
mour Narrows  by  striking  an  unknown  rock  at  the 
entrance  to  Oueen  Charlotte  Sound. 

In  crossing  this  forty-mile  stretch  of  Queen  Char- 
lotte Sound  the  voyager  feels  the  swell,  and  touches 
the  outer  ocean  for  the  first  time.  If  the  wind  is 
strong  there  may  be  a  chopping  sea,  but  in  general  it 
is  a  stilled  exjjanse  on  which  fog  and  mist  eternally 
brood.  The  Kuro  Siwo,  or  Black  Stream,  or  Japan 
Current,  of  the  Pacific,  which  corresponds  to  the 
Gulf  Stream  of  the  Atlantic,  touches  the  coast  near 
this  Sound,  and  the  colder  air  from  the  land  striking 
this  warm  river  of  the  sea  produces  the  heavy  vapors 
which  lie  in  impenetrable  banks  for  miles,  or  float  in 
filmy  and  downy  clouds  along  the  green  mountain 
shores.  It  is  this  warm  current  which  modifies  the 
climate  of  the  whole  Pacific  coast,  bends  the  iso- 
thermal lines  northward,  and  makes  temperature 
depend  upon  the  distance  from  the  sea  instead  of 
upon  distance  from  the  equator.  Bathed  in  perpetual 
fog,  like  the  south  coast  of  England  and  Ireland, 
there  is  a  climatic  resemblance  in  many  ways  be- 
tween the  islands  of  Great  Britain  and  the  islands  of 
the  British  Columbia  shore.     The  constant  moisture 


m  5« 


^•»*.«.'-zK3J»it3J'.tt    -i-liX.' 


'!§ 


Tin:   SITKAS   AllCIirPKLAdO. 


SI 


and  the  lon^^  days  force  vej^etation  like  a  hothouse, 
arnl  the  density  of  the  forests  and  the  luxuriance  of 
the  undergrowth  are  equalled  only  in  the  tropics. 
The  i^ine-trecs  cover  the  mountain  slopes  as  thickly 
as  the  grass  on  a  hillside,  and  as  fires  have  never 
destroyed  the  forests,  only  the  spring  avalanches  and 
land-slides  break  their  continuity.  71iere  is  an  in- 
side passage  between  the  mountains  from  Queen 
Charlotte  to  Milbank  Sound  that  gave  us  an  after- 
noon and  evening  in  the  midst  of  fine  scenery,  but 
for  another  whole  day  we  passed  through  the  grand- 
est of  fiords  on  the  British  Columbia  coast. 

The  sun  rose  at  three  o'clock  on  that  rare  summer 
morning,  when  the  ship  thrust  her  l)ow  into  the  clear, 
mirror-like  waters  of  the  T'inlavson  Channel,  and  at 
four  o'clock  a  dozen  passengers  were  up  in  front 
watching  the  matchless  panorama  of  mountain  walls 
thai  slii)}")ed  silently  past  us.  The  clear,  soft  light, 
the  jHU'e  air,  and  the  stillness  of  sky,  and  shore,  and 
water,  in  the  early  morning,  made  it  seem  like  the 
dawn  of  creation  in  some  new  paradise.  The  breath 
of  the  sea  and  the  breath  of  the  pine  forest  were 
blended  in  the  air,  and  the  silence  and  calm  added  to 
the  inspiration  of  the  surroundings.  The  eastern 
wall  of  the  channel  lay  in  pure  shado  v,  the  forest 
slopes  were  deep  unbroken  waves  of  green,  with  a 
narrow  base-line  of  sandstone  washed  snowy  white, 
and  beneath  that  every  tree  and  twig  lay  reflected  in 
the  still  mirror  of  waters  of  a  deeper,  purer,  and  softer 
green  than  the  emerald. 

The  marks  of  the  spring  avalanches  were  white 
scars  on  the  face  of  the  mountains,  and  the  course 
of  preceding  landslides  showed  in  the  paler  green  of 


22 


HOUTIIEHN  ALASKA. 


f^ 


the  ferns,  bushes,  and  the  dense  growth  of  young 
trees  that  quickly  cover  these  places.  Cliffs  of  the 
color  and  boldness  of  the  Yosemite  walls  shone  in 
the  sunlight  on  the  opposite  side,  and  wherever  there 
were  snowbanks  on  the  summits,  or  lakes  in  the 
hollows  and  amphitheatres  back  of  the  mountain 
ridge,  foaming  white  cataracts  tumbled  down  the 
sheer  walls  into  the  green  sea  water.  luigles  soared 
overhead  in  long,  lazy  sweeps,  and  hundreds  of 
young  ducks  fluttered  away  from  the  ship's  bow,  and 
dived  at  the  sharp  echoes  of  a  rifle  shot.  In  this 
Finlayson  Channel  the  soundings  give  from  50  to  130 
fathoms,  and^  from  the  surface  of  these  still,  deep 
waters  the  first  timbered  slopes  of  the  mountains  rise 
nearly  perpendicularly  for  1,500  feet,  and  their  snow- 
crowned  summits  reach  3,000  feet  above  their  perfect 
reflections.  From  a  width  of  two  miles  at  the  en- 
trance, the  pass  narrows  one  half,  and  then  by  a  turn 
around  an  island  the  ship  enters  Tolmie  and  Fraser 
channels,  which  repeat  the  same  wonders  in  bolder 
forms,  and  on  deeper  waters.  At  the  end  of  that 
last  fiord,  where  submerged  mountain  peaks  stand  as 
islands,  six  diverging  channels  appear,  and  the  intri- 
cacy of  the  inside  passage  up  the  coast  is  as  marvel- 
lous now,  as  when  Vancouver  dropped  his  anchor  in 
this  Wright  Sound,  puzzled  as  to  which  way  he 
should  turn  to  reach  the  ocean.  Finer  even  than  the 
three  preceding  fiords  is  the  arrowy  reach  of  Gren- 
ville  Channel,  which  is  a  narrow  cleft  in  the  moun- 
tain range,  forty-five  miles  long,  and  with  scarcely  a 
curve  to  break  the  bold  palisade  of  its  walls.  In 
the  narrowest  part  it  is  not  a  quarter  of  a  mile  in 
width  ;  and  the  forest  walls,  and  bold  granite  cliffs, 


< 

■;i. 


THE  S I TK  AN  A  li  (in  I'KL  A  a  0. 


23 


3 

1; 


rising  there  to  their  greatest  height,  give  back  an 
echo  many  times  before  it  is  lost  in  h)ng  rever- 
berations. 

Junerging  from  Grenville  Channel,  the  church  and 
houses  of  Metlakatlah,  the  one  model  missionary 
settlement  on  the  coast,  and  an  Arcadian  village  of 
civilized  and  Ciiristianized  Indians,  were  seen  shining 
in  the  afternoon  sun.  At  tliat  point  the  water  is 
tinged  a  [)cder  green  by  the  turbid  curients  of  the 
Skeena  River,  and  up  that  ri\er  the  newest  I'^l  Do- 
rado has  lately  been  found.  Miners  have  gone  up  in 
canoes,  and  fishermen  have  dropped  their  lines  and 
joined  them  in  the  hunt  for  gold,  which  is  found  in 
nuggets  from  the  size  of  a  pea  to  soliil  chunks  worth 
^20  ami  $6o.  "  Jern,"  tiie  first  [)rospector,  took  out 
$6oo  in  two  days,  anil  in  the  same  week  two  miners 
panned  out  j>68o  in  six  hours.  One  nugget,  taken 
from  a  crevice  in  a  rock,  was  sent  down  to  Victoria, 
and  found  to  be  pure  gold  and  worth  $26.  Other 
consignments  of  treasure  following,  that  quiet  colo- 
nial town  has  been  shaken  by  a  gold  fever  that  is 
sending  all  the  adventurous  spirits  off  to  the  Lome 
Creek  mines. 

Before  the  sunset  hour  we  crossed  Dixon  Entrance 
and.  the  famous  del)atable  line  of  54°  40'.  and  the 
patriots  who  said  the  northern  boundary  of  rhe 
United  States  should  be  "  Fifty-four  Forty,  or  Fight," 
are  best  remembered  now,  when  it  is  seen  that  the 
Alaska  possessions  begin  at  that  line.  We  were  within 
the  Alaska  boundaries  and  standing  on  United  States 
soil  again  at  the  fishing  station  of  Tongass,  on  Wales 
Island,  It  is  a  wild  and  picturesque  little  place,  tucked 
away  in  the  folds  of  the  hills  and  islands,  and  the  ship 


24 


sour  lit:  lis  Alaska. 


i 


rounded  many  points  before  it  dropped  anchor  in 
front  of  two  new  wooden  iiouses  on  a  rocky  shore  that 
constituted  Toni;ass.  A  chister  of  bark  huts  and 
tents  further  down  thi;  beach  w:is  tlie  home  of  the 
Indians  wiio  catch,  salt,  and  barrel  the  salmon.  There 
was  one  white  man  as  host  at  the  fish  house,  a  fur- 
capped,  sad-eyed  mortal,  who  wistfully  said  that  he 
had  not  been  "  below  "  in  seven  years,  and  entertained 
us  with  the  si^ht  (^f  his  one  hundred  and  forty  bar- 
rels of  salmon,  and  the  vats  and  scow  fiUeil  with 
split  and  salted  or  freshly  cauj^dit  fish.  He  showed 
us  a  string  of  fine  trout  that  set  the  amateur  fisher- 
men wild,  and  then  gallantly  offered  to  weigh  the 
ladies  on  his  new  scales.  Over  in  the  group  of  Ton- 
gass  Indians,  sitting  stolidly  in  a  row  before  their 
houses,  there  was  a  "  one-moon-old  "  baby  that  gave 
but  a  look  at  the  staring  white  people,  and  then  sent 
up  one  pitiful  little  barbaric  yawp.  A  clumsy,  fiat- 
bottomed  scow  was  rowed  slowly  out  to  the  steamer, 
and  while  the  salt,  the  barrel  hoops,  barrel  staves,  and 
groceries  were  unloaded  to  it  from  the  ship,  a  ball 
was  begun  on  deck.  A  merry  young  mrner  bound 
for  the  Chilkat  country  gave  rollicking  old  tunes  on 
his  violin,  and  a  Juneau  miner  called  off  figures  that 
convulsed  the  dancers  and  kept  the  four  sets  flying  on 
the  after  deck.  "  The  winnowing  sound  of  dancers' 
feet"  anil  the  scrape  of  the  fiddle  brought  a  few  In 
dian  women  out  in  canoes,  and  they  paddled  listlessly 
around  the  stern,  talking  in  slow  gutturals  of  the 
strange  performances  of  the  "  Boston  people,"  as  all 
United  States  citizens  have  been  termed  by  them 
since  Captain  Gray  and  John  Jacob  Astor's  ships 
first  came  to  the  Northwest  coast.     At  half-past  ten 


i! 


THE  SITKAN  ARCHIPKLAUO. 


%b 


o'clock  daynght  still  lingered  on  the  sky,  and  the 
Chicago  man  gravely  read  a  page  of  a  Lake  Shore 
railroad  time-table  in  tine  print  for  a  test,  and  then 
went  solemnly  to  bed,  six  hundred  miles  away  from 
the  rest  of  the  United  States. 


S6 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


CHAPTER   III. 


CAPE    FOX    AND    NAUA    BAY. 


di 


U  ' 


FROM  the  Tongass  fishery,  which  is  some  miles 
below  the  main  village  of  the  Tongass  Indians 
and  the  deserted  fort  where  United  States  troops 
were  once  stationed,  the  ship  made  its  way  by  night 
to  Cape  Fox.  At  this  point  on  the  mainland  shore, 
beyond  Fort  Tongass,  the  Kinneys,  the  great  salmon 
packers  of  Astoria,  have  a  cannery  that  is  one  of  the 
model  establishments  up  here,  Two  'arge  buildings 
for  the  cannery,  two  houses,"  a  store,  and  the  scattered 
line  of  log  houses,  bark  houses  and  tents  of  the  In- 
dian village,  are  all  that  one  sees  from  the  water.  In 
the  cannery  most  of  the  work  is  done  by  the  Indians, 
but  a  few  Chinamen  perform  the  work  which  requires 
a  certain  amount  of  training  and  mechanical  skill. 
The  Indians  cast  the  nets  and  bring  in  the  shining 
silver  fish  with  their  deep  moss-green  backs  and  fierce 
mouths,  and  heap  them  in  slippery  plies  in  an  outside 
shed  overhanging  the  water.  A  Chinaman  picks 
them  up  with  a  long  hook,  and,  laying  them  in  a  row 
across  a  table,  goes  through  a  sleight-of-hand  per- 
formance with  a  sharp  knife,  which  in  six  minutes 
leaves  twenty  salmon  shorn  of  their  heads,  tails,  fin.s, 
and  inwards.  Experienced  visitors  to  such  places  took 
out  their  watches  and  timed  him,  and  in  ten  seconds 


'\«i 


V 
* 


THE  SITKAS  ARCHIPELAGO. 


87 


a  fish  was  put  through  his  first  rough  process  of  trim- 
ming, and  passed  on  to  men  who  washed  it,  cleaned 
it  more  thoroughly,  scraped  off  a  few  scales,  and  by 
a  turn  of  revolving  knives  cut  it  in  sections  the 
length  of  a  can.  Indian  women  packed  the  tins, 
which  were  soldered,  plunged  into  vats  of  boiling 
water,  tested,  resoldered,  laquered,  labelled,  and 
packed  in  boxes  in  quick  routine.  There  was  the 
most  perfect  cleanliness  about  the  cannery,  and  the 
salmon  itself  is  only  touched  after  the  last  washing 
by  the  fingers  of  the  Indian  women,  who  fill  the  cans 
with  solid  pieces  of  bright  red  flesh.  In  1883  there 
were  3,784  cases  of  canned  salmon  shipped  from 
this  establishment  as  the  result  of  the  first  sea.son's 
venture.  In  the  following  year.  1,156  cases  were 
shipped  by  the  July  steamer,  and  the  total  for  the 
season  was  about  double  th^t  of  the  prerccu'^g  year. 

Owing  to  the  good  salmon  season  and  the  steady 
employment  given  them  at  the  cannery,  the  In- 
dians held  their  things  so  high  that  even  the  most 
insatiate  and  abandoned  curio-buyers  made  no  pur- 
chases, although  there  has  been  regret  ever  since  at 
the  thought  of  the  wide  old  bracelets  and  the  finely- 
woven  hats  that  they  Lt  escape  them.  At  Cape 
Fox  a  shrewd  Indian  came  .d)oard,  and  spied  the 
amateur  photographer  taking  groups  on  deck.  Imme- 
diately he  was  eager  to  be  taken  as  well,  and  followed 
the  camera  around,  repeating,  "  I  low  much  Siwash 
picture.^"  He  was  not  to  be  appeased  by  any  state- 
ments about  the  photographer  doing  his  work  for  his 
own  amusement,  and  i)leaded  so  hard  that  the  arHst 
finally  relented  and  turned  his  camera  upon  him. 
The  Indian  stiffened  himself  into  his  most  rigid  atti- 


'M, 


1^ 


1 


28 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


tude,  when  directed  to  a  corner  of  the  deck  between 
two  lifeboats,  and  when  the  process  was  over  he  could 
hardly  be  made  to  stir  from  his  pose.  When  we 
pressed  him  to  tell  us  what  he  wanted  his  picture  for, 
he  chuckled  like  any  civilized  swain,  and  confessed 
the  whole  sentimental  story  by  the  mahogany  blush 
that  mantled  his  broad  cheekij. 

Up  Revillagigedo  Channel  the  scenery  is  more  like 
that  of  the  Scotch  lakes,  broad  expanses  of  water 
walled  by  forest  ridges  and  mountains  that  in  certain 
lights  show  a  glow  like  blooming  heather  on  their 
sides.  The  Tongass  Narrows,  which  succeed  this 
channel  of  the  long  name,  give  more  vie  vs  of  ca- 
ftons  filled  with  water,  winding  between  high  bluffs 
and  sloping  summits.  It  was  a  radiant  sunny  morn- 
ing when  we  steamed  slowly  through  these  beautiful 
waterways,  and  at  noort  the  ship  turned  into  a  long 
green  inlet  on  the  Revillagigedo  shore,  and  cast  an- 
chor at  the  head  of  Naha  Bay.  Of  all  the  lovely 
spots  in  Alaska,  commend  me  to  this  little  landlocked 
bay,  where  the  clear  green  waters  are  stirred  with  the 
leaping  of  thousands  of  salmon,  and  the  shores  are 
clothed  with  an  enchanted  forest  of  giant  pines,  and 
the  undergrowth  is  a  tangle  of  ferns  and  salmon-berry 
bushes,  and  ;ae  ground  and  every  log  are  covered 
with  v/onderful  mosses,  into  which  the  foot  sinks  at 
every  step. 

The  splash  of  the  leaping  salmon  was  on  every 
side  and  at  every  moment,  and  the  sight  of  the  large 
fish  jumping  above  the  surface  and  leaping  through 
the  air  caused  the  excitable  passenger  at  the  stern  to 
nearly  capsize  the  small  boat  and  steer  wildly.  As 
the  sailors  rowed  the  boat  up  the  narrow  bay,  where 


'^ 


Till!:  aUKAN  AltCllIPELAaO. 


29 


the  ship  could  barely  swing  round  with  the  tide,  the 
Chicago  man  pensively  observed :  "  There  's  a  thou- 
sand dollars  jumping  in  the  air  every  ten  minutes ! " 

The  anglers  were  maddened  at  the  sight  of  these 
fish,  for  although  these  wild  northern  salmon  can 
sometimes  be  deluded  by  trolling  with  a  spoon-hook, 
they  have  no  taste  for  such  small  things  as  flies,  and 
are  usually  caught  with  seines  or  spears,  except  dur- 
ing those  unusual  salmon  runs  when  the  Indians  wade 
in  among  the  crowded  fins  and  shovel  the  fish  ashore 
with  their  canoe  paddles. 

At  the  head  of  Naha  Bay,  over  d  narrow  point  of 
lar  :,  lies  a  beautiful  mountain  lake,  whose  surface  is  a 
•  ifi!  t,elow  the  high-water  mark,  and  at  low  tide  there 
is  a  fine  cascade  oi  fresh  water  foaming  from  between 
the  rocks  in  the  narrow  outlet.  During  the  run  of 
salmon,  the  pool  at  the  foot  of  the  fall  is  crowded  with 
the  struggling  fish  ;  but  the  net  is  cast  in  the  lake  as 
often  as  in  the  bay,  and  the  average  catch  is  eighty 
barrels  of  salmon  a  day.  The  salmon  are  cleaned, 
salted,  and  barrelled  in  a  long  warehouse  overhanging 
the  falls,  and  a  few  bark  houses  belonging  to  the  In- 
dians who  vv-^rk  in  the  fishery  are  perched  pictu- 
resquely n  the  little  wooded  point  between  the 
two  wat.  r;,  1^  'oating  across  this  lovely  lake  in  a  slimy 
boat  that  t.  e  'ndians  had  just  emptied  of  its  last 
catch  of  salmon,  the  beauty  of  its  shores  v^as  more 
apparent,  and  the  overhanging  trees,  the  thickets  of 
ferns,  bu5:hes,  and  wild  grasses,  the  network  o(  fallen 
logs  hidden  under  their  thick  coating  of  moss,  and 
the  glinting  of  the  sunshine  on  bark  and  moss  and 
liche;; ;.  ^-xrited  our  wildest  enthusiasm.  In  Alaska 
one  setc  •  ,ic  greatest  range  of  greens  in  nature,  and 


30 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


it  is  an  education  of  the  eye  in  that  one  color  to  study 
the  infinite  shadt^s,  tints,  tones,  and  suggestions  of 
that  primary  color.  Of  all  green  and  verdant  woods, 
I  know  of  none  that  so  satisfy  one  with  their  rank 
luxuriance,  their  beauty  and  picturesqueness  ;  and  one 
feels  a  little  sorrow  for  those  people  who,  never  hav- 
ing seen  Alaska,  are  blindly  worshipping  the  barren, 
burnt,  dried-out,  starved-out  forests  of  the  East.  In 
still  stretches  of  this  lake  at  Naha  there  are  mirrored 
the  snow-capped  summits  whose  melting  snows  fill 
its  banks,  and  the  echo  from  a  single  ^j^stol-shot  is 
flung  back  from  side  to  side  before  it  J  iway  in 
a  roar.  Beyond  this  lake  there  is  a  chain  f  lakes, 
reached  by  connecting  creeks  and  short  portages, 
and  the  few  white  men  who  have  penetrated  to  the 
farthest  tarn  in  the  heart  of  Revillagigedo  Island  say 
that  each  lake  is  wilder  and  more  lovely  than  the  last 
one.  A  mile  below  the  fishery,  and  back  in  the 
woods,  there  is  a  waterfall  some  forty  feet  in  height ; 
and  a  mountain  stream,  hurrying  down  from  the 
clear  pools  and  snow-banks  on  the  upper  heights, 
takes  a  leap  over  a  ledge  of  rocks  and  covers  it  with 
foam  and  sparkling  waters. 

The  fishery  and  trading-post  at  Naha  Bay  was  es- 
tablished in  1883,  and  shipped  338  barrels  of  salted 
salmon  that  first  season.  In  1884  over  500  barrels 
were  shipped,  and  throughout  June  and  July  the  sal- 
mon were  leaping  in  the  bay  so  thickly  that  at  the 
turn  of  the  tide  their  splashing  was  like  falling  rain. 


THE  SITKA^/   ARCHIPELAGO. 


31 


h 


CHAPTER   IV. 


KASA-AN    HAY. 


KASA-AN,  or  Karta  Bay  opens  from  Clarence 
Strait  directly  west  of  Naha  Bay,  and  the  long 
inlet  runs  in  from  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Prince  cf 
Wales  island  for  twenty  miles.  There  are  villages 
of  Kasa-an  Indians  in  the  smaller  inlets  and  coves 
opening  from  the  bay,  and  carved  totem  poles  stand 
guard  over  the  large  square  houses  of  these  native 
settlements.  The  bay  itself  is  as  lovely  a  stretch  of 
water  as  can  be  imagined,  sheltered,  sunny,  and  calm, 
with  noble  mountains  outlining  its  curves,  and  wooded 
islands  drifted  in  picturesque  groups  at  the  end.  It 
was  a  Scotch  loch  glorified,  on  the  radiant  summer 
days  that  I  spent  there,  and  it  recalled  one's  best 
memories  of  Lake  George  in  the  softer  aspects  of  its 
shores.  ■ 

Smaller  inlets  opening  from  the  bay  afford  glimpses 
into  shady  recesses  in  the  mountain-sides,  and  one 
little  gap  in  the  shores  at  last  gave  us  a  sight  of  the 
trader's  store,  the  long  row  of  lichen-covered  and  moss- 
grown  sheds  of  the  fishery,  with  the  usual  cluster  of 
bark  houses  and  tents  above  a  shelving  beach  strewn 
with  narrow,  black  canoes,  A  group  of  Indians 
gathered  -^n  shore,  their  gay  blankets,  dresses,  and 
cotton  kerchiefs  adding  a  fine  touch  of  color  to  the 


SOUTIfKRN  ALASKA. 


I! 


scene,  and  the  men  in  the  fishery,  in  their  high  rubber 
boots  and  aprons,  flannel  shirts  and  big  hats,  were 
heroic  adjuncts  to  the  picturesque  nnd  out-of-the-way 
scene. 

There  was  a  skurrying  to  and  fro  and  great  excite- 
ment when  the  big  steamer  rounded  slowly  up  to  the 
little  wharf,  and  bow  line,  stern  line,  and  breast  lines 
were  thrown  out,  fastened  to  the  piles  and  to  the  trees 
on  shore,  and  the  slack  hauled  in  at  the  stentorian 
commands  of  the  mate.  Karta,  or  Kasa-an  Bay  has 
been  a  famous  place  for  salmon  for  a  score  of  years, 
and  is  best  known,  locally,  as  the  Baronovich  fishery. 
Old  Charles  V.  Baronovich  was  a  relic  of  Russian 
days,  and  a  character  on  the  coast.  He  was  a  Slav, 
and  gifted  with  all  the  cunning  of  that  race,  and  after 
the  transfer  of  the  country  to  the  United  States,  he 
disturbed  the  serenity  of  the  customs  officials  by  the 
steady  smuggling:  that  he  kept  up  from  over  the 
British  border.  Ke  would  import  all  kinds  of  stores, 
but  chiefly  bales  of  English  blankets,  by  canoe,  and 
when  the  collector  or  special  agent  would  nenetrate 
to  this  fastness  of  his,  they  found  no  damaging  proof 
in  his  store,  aid  only  a  peppery,  hot-headed  old  pirate, 
who  swore  at  them  roundly  in  a  compound  language 
of  Russian,  Indian,  and  English,  and  shook  his 
crippled  limbs  with  rage.  He  was  also  suspected  of 
selling  liquor  to  the  Indians,  and  a  revenue  cutter 
once  put  into  Kasa-an  Bay,  with  a  commander  whom 
smugglers  seldom  baflfled,  and  who  was  bound  to  un- 
cover Baronovich's  wickedness.  The  wily  old  Slav 
received  the  officers  courteously.  He  listened  to  the 
formal  announcement  of  the  purpose  of  their  visit,  and 
bade  them  search  the  place  and  kindly  do  him  the 


THE  SITKAN  AHtUIPELAGO. 


88 


honor  of  dining  with  him  when  they  finished.  Baro- 
novich  dozed  and  smoked,  and  idled  the  afternoon 
away,  while  a  watch  kept  a  close  eye  upon  him,  and  the 
officers  and  men  searched  the  packing-house,  the  In- 
dian houses  and  tents,  and  the  canoes  on  the  beach. 
They  followed  every  trail  and  broken  pathway  into 
the  woods,  tapped  hollow  trees,  dug  under  the  logs, 
and  peered  down  into  the  waters  of  the  bay,  and 
finally  gave  up  the  search,  convinced  that  there  w::s 
no  liquor  near  the  place.  Baronovich  gave  them  a 
good  dinner,  and  towaius  the  close  a  bottle  of  whis- 
key was  set  before  each  officer,  and  the  host  led  with 
a  toast  to  the  captain  of  the  cutter  and  the  revenue 
marine.  ' 

This  queer  old  fellow  married  one  of  the  daughters 
of  Skowl,  the  Haida  chief  who  ruled  the  bay.  She 
is  said  to  have  been  a  very  comely  maiden  when  Baro- 
novich married  her,  and  is  now  a  stately,  fine-looking 
woman,  with  good  features  and  a  creamy  complexion. 
While  Baronovich  was  cleaning  his  gun  one  day,  it 
was  accidentally  discharged,  and  one  of  his  children 
fell  dead  by  his  own  hand.  The  Indians  viewed  this 
deed  with  horror,  and  demanded  that  Skowl  should 
take  his  life  in  punishment.  As  it  was  proved  an 
accident,  Skowl  defended  his  son-in-law  from  the 
charge  of  murder,  and  declared  that  he  should  go 
free.  Ever  after  that  the  Indians  viewed  Baronovich 
with  a  certain  fear,  and  ascribed  to  him  that  quality 
which  the  Italians  call  the  "evil  eye." 

With  the  passion  of  his  race  for  fine  weapons  and 
fine  metal  work,  Baronovich  possessed  many  old  arms 
that  are  worthy  of  an  art  museum.  A  pair  of  duel- 
ling pistols  covered  with  fine  engraving  and  inlaying 


34 


SOl'THEliN  ALASKA. 


were  bought  of  his  widow  by  one  of  the  naval  officers 
in  command  of  the  man-of-war  on  this  station,  and 
an  ancient  double-barrelled  flint-lock  shot-gun  lately 
passed  into  the  hands  of  another  officer.  The  shot- 
gun has  the  stock  and  barrels  richly  damascened  with 
silver  and  gold,  after  the  manner  of  the  finest  Span- 
ish metal  work,  and  the  clear  gray  flints  in  the  trigger 
give  out  a  shower  of  sparks  when  struck.  Gunnell 
of  London  was  the  maker  of  this  fine  fowling-piece, 
and  it  is  now  used  in  the  field  by  its  new  owner,  who 
prefers  it  to  the  latest  Remington. 

Baronovich  was  a  man  with  a  long  and  highly-col- 
ored history  by  all  the  signs,  but  he  died  a  few  years 
since  with  no  biographer  at  hand,  and  his  exploits, 
adventures,  and  oddities  are  now  nearly  forgotten. 
The  widow  Baronovich  still  lives  at  Kasa-an,  unwil' 
ling  to  leave  this  peaceful  sunny  nook  in  the  moun 
tains,  but  the  fishery  is  now  leased  to  a  ship  captain, 
who  has  taken  away  the  fine  old  flavor  of  piracy  and 
smuggling,  and  substituted  a  rSgimc  of  system,  en- 
terprise, and  eternal  cleanliness. 

The  wandering  salmon  that  swarm  on  this  coast  by 
millions  show  clear  instincts  when  they  choose,  with- 
out an  exception,  only  the  most-  picturesque  and 
attractive  nooks  to  jump  in.  They  dart  and  leap  up 
Kasa-an  Bay  to  the  mouths  of  all  the  little  creeks  at 
its  head,  and  three  times  during  the  year  the  water  is 
alive  with  them.  The  best  salmon  run  in  June  and 
July,  and  in  one  day  the  sei'^e  brought  in  eighteen 
hundred  salmon  in  a  single  haul.  Two  thousand  and 
twenty-one  hundred  fish  have  weighted  the  net  at  dif- 
erent  hauls,  and  the  fish-house  was  overrunning  with 
these  royal  salmon.     Indian  women  do  the  most  of 


THE  SITE  AN  ARCHIPELAGO. 


35 


the  work  in  the  fishery  —  cleaning  and  splitting  the 
fish  and  taking  out  the  backbones  and  the  worthless 
parts  with  some  very  deft  strokes  from  their  murder- 
ous-looking knives.  The  salmon  are  washed  thor- 
oughly and  spread  between  layers  of  dry  -salt  in  large 
vats.  Brine  is  poured  over  them,  and  they  are  left 
for  eight  days  in  pickle.  Boards  and  weights  are  laid 
on  the  top  of  the  vats,  and  they  are  then  barrelled 
and  stored  in  a  long  covered  shed  and  treated  to  more 
strong  brine  through  the  bung-hole  until  ready  for 
shipment.  Of  all  salt  fish  the  salt  salmon  is  the 
finest,  and  here,  where  salmon  are  so  plentiful,  a  bar- 
relled dainty  is  put  up  in  the  shape  of  salmon  bellies, 
which  saves  only  the  fattest  and  most  tender  portions 
of  these  rich,  bright  red  Kasa-an  salmon. 

Over  fifteen  hundred  barrels  were  packed  in  1884, 
and  under  the  new  r/^imc  the  Kasa-an  fishery  has 
distanced  its  rivals  in  quantity,  while  the  quality  has 
a  long-established  fame. 

These  Kasa-an  Indians  are  a  branch  of  the  Haidas, 
the  finest  of  the  Indian  tribes  of  the  coast.  They 
are  most  intelligent  and  industrious  people,  and  are 
skilled  in  many  ways  that  render  them  superior  to 
the  other  tribes  of  the  island.  Their  permanent 
village  is  some  miles  below  the  fishery,  and  their 
square  whitewashed  houses,  and  the  tomb  and  mortu- 
ary column  of  Skowl,  their  great  chief,  n^akes  quite 
a  pretty  scene  in  a  shady  green  inlet  near  Harono- 
vich's  old  copper  mine.  A  few  of  their  houses  at  the 
fishery  are  of  logs  or  rough-hewn  planks,  but  the 
most  of  them  are  bark  huts,  with  a  rustic  arbor  hung 
full  of  drying  salmon  outside.  These  bits  of  bright- 
red  salmon,  against  the  slabs  of  rough  hemlock  bark, 


36 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


ll 


make  a  gay  trimming  for  each  house,  and  when  a 
bronzed  old  hag,  in  a  dun-colored  gown,  with  yellow 
'kerchief  on  her  head,  stirs  up  the  fire  of  snapping 
fir  boughs,  and  directs  a  column  of  smoke  toward  the 
drying  fish,  it  is  a  bit  of  aborigine  life  to  set  an 
artist  wild.  Their  bark  houses  are  scattered  irregu- 
larly along  the  beach  above  high-water  mark,  and  a 
fleet  of  slender,  black  canoes,  with  high,  carved  bov/s, 
are  drawn  up  on  the  sand  and  pebbles.  The  canoe 
is  the  only  means  of  locomotion  in  this  region  of 
unexplored  and  impenetrable  woods,  and  the  Indian 
is  even  more  at  home  in  it  than  on  shore.  No  horse- 
man  cares  for  his  steed  more  faithfully  than  the 
Siwash  tends  and  mends  his  graceful  cedar  canoe, 
hewn  from  a  single  log,  and  given  its  flare  and  grace- 
ful curves  by  being  steamed  with  water  and  hot 
stones,  and  then  braced  to  its  intended  width.  The 
Haida  canoe  has  the  same  high,  double-beaked  prow 
of  the  Chinook  canoes  of  Puget  Sound,  but  where 
the  stern  of  the  latter  drops  in  a  straight  line  to  the 
keel,  the  Haida  canoe  has  a  deep  convex  curve.  By 
universal  fashion  all  of  these  canoes  are  painted 
black  externally,  with  the  thwarts  and  bows  lined 
with  red,  and  sometimes  the  interior  brightened  with 
that  color.  The  black  paint  used  to  be  made  from 
a  mixture  of  seal  oil  and  bituminous  coal,  and  the  red 
paint  was  the  natural  clay  found  in  places  throughout 
all  Indian  countries.  Latterly  the  natives  have 
taken  to  depending  on  the  traders'  stores  for  paint, 
but  civilization  has  never  grasped  them  so  firmly  as 
to  cause  them  to  put  seats  or  cross-pieces  in  their 
canoes.  They  squat  or  sit  flat  in  the  bottom  of  their 
dugouts  for  hours  without   changing   position.      It 


TU£  SITKAN  AUCllll'ELAiJO. 


37 


gives  white  men  cramps  and  stiff  joints  to  look 
at  them,  and  sailors  are  no  luclcier  than  landsmen  in 
thel.'  attemj)ts  to  paddle  and  keep  their  balance  in 
one  of  '  hese  canoes  for  the  first  time.  The  Indians 
use  a  broad,  short  |)addle,  which  they  plunge  straight 
down  into  the  water  like  a  knife,  and  they  literally 
shovel  the  water  astern  with  it.  The  woman,  who 
has  a  good  many  rights  up  here  that  her  sisters  of 
the  western  plains  know  not,  sits  back  of  her  liege, 
and  with  a  waving  motion,  never  taking  the  paddle 
out  of  the  water  once,  steers  and  helps  on  the  craft. 
Often  she  paddles  steadily,  while  the  man  bales  out 
the  water  with  a  wooden  scoop.  When  the  canoes 
are  drawn  up  on  the  beach  they  are  carefully  tilled 
with  grass  and  branches,  and  covered  with  mats  or 
blankets  to  keep  them  sound  and  firm.  A  row  of 
these  high-beaked  canoer  thus  draped  has  a  very 
singular  effect,  and  on  a  gloomy  day  they  are  like  so 
many  catafalques  or  funeral  gondolas,  Baronovich's 
olil  schooner,  the  Pioneer  of  Cazan,  lies  stranded  on 
the  beach  in  the  midst  of  the  native  boats,  moss 
and  lichens  tenderly  covering  its  timbers,  and  vagrant 
grasses  springing  up  in  the  seams  of  the  old  wreck. 
The  dark,  cramped  little  cabin  is  just  the  place  for 
ghosts  of  corsairs  and  the  goblins  of  sailors'  yarns, 
and  although  it  has  lain  there  many  seasons,  no 
Indian  has  yet  pre-empted  it  as  a  home  for  his 
family  and  dogs. 

The  thrifty  Siwash,  which  is  the  generic  and  com- 
mon name  for  these  people,  and  a  corruption  of  the 
old  French  voyagers'  sauvage,  keeps  his  valuables 
stored  in  heavy  cedar  chests,  or  gaudy  red  trunks 
studded   with   brass    nails;    the   latter  costly  prizes 


h- 


38 


SOUriiKUN  ALASKA. 


with  which  the  Russian  traders  used  to  tempt  them. 
At  the  first  sound  of  the  steamer's  patldle-wheels,  — 
and  they  can  be  heard  for  miles  in  these  fiords,  — 
the  Indians  rummaj^ed  their  houses  and  cliests  and 
sorted  out  their  vaUiable  things,  and  when  the  first 


ipi^f^ 


fpIFf^^ljpri 


THREK   CARVED   SPOONS    AND   SMAMAN's    KAITI  K. 


ardent  curio-seeker  rushed  throuf^h  the  packin^f- 
houses  and  out  towards  the  hark  huts,  their  wares 
were  all  displayed.  The  Haidas  are  famous  as  the 
best  carvers,  silversmiths,  and  workers  on  the  coast  ; 
and  there  are  some  of  their  best  artists  in  this  little 
band  on  Kasa-an  Bay.  An  old  blind  man,  with  a 
battered  hat  on  his  head  and  a  dirty  white  blanket 


THE  ^.^KAN  AliCIJIPtJLAGO. 


39 


fvrappcti  around  him,  sat  befcc  one  bark  hut,  with  a 
'arge  wooiicn  bowl  filled  with  carved  spoons  made 
from  the  horns  of  the  mountain  goat.  These  spoons, 
once  in  common  use  amoni;  all  these  people,  are  now 
disappearing,  as  the  rage  for  the  tin  and  pewter  uten- 
sils in  the  traders'  stores  increases,  although  many  of 
them  have  the  handles  polished  and  the  bowls  worn 
by  the  daily  usage  of  generations.  The  horn  is  nat- 
urally black,  and  constant  handling  and  soaking  in 
seal  oil  gives  them  a  jetty  lustre  that  adds  much 
to  the  really  fine  carvings  on  the  handles.  Silver 
bracelets  pounded  out  of  coin,  and  ornamented  with 
traceries  and  chasings  by  the  hand  of  •*  Kasa-an 
John,"  the  famous  jeweller  of  the  tribe,  were  the 
prizes  eagerly  sought  and  contended  for  by  the 
ladies.  The  bangle  mania  rages  among  the  Haida 
maids  and  matrons  as  fiercely  as  on  civilized  shores, 
and  d'  v  wrists  were  outstretched  on  which  from 
three  .  ^ne  bracelets  lay  in  shining  lines  like  jointed 
mail.  Anciently  they  pounded  a  single  heavy  brace- 
let from  a  silver  dollar  piece,  and  ornamented  the 
broad  two-inch  band  with  heraldic  carvings  of  the 
crow,  the  bear,  the  raven,  the  whale,  and  other  em- 
blematic beasts  of  their  strangely  mi.xed  mythology. 
Latterly  they  have  become  corrupted  by  civilized 
fashions,  and  they  have  taken  to  narrow  bands,  ham- 
mered from  half  dollars  and  carved  with  scrolls,  con- 
ventional eagles  copied  from  coins,  and  geometrical 
designs.  They  have  no  fancy  for  gold  ornaments, 
and  they  are  very  rarely  seen  ;  but  the  fancy  for  silver 
is  universal,  and  their  methodical  way  of  converting  * 
every  coin  into  a  bracelet  and  stowing  it  away  in 
their  chests   gives   hope  of   there   being  one  place 


40 


SOUTUERN  ALASKA. 


where  the  surplus  silver  and  the  trade  dollars  may 
be  legitimately  made  away  with. 

In  one  house  an  enlightened  and  non-skeptical 
Indian  was  driving  sharp  bar;^ains  in  the  sale  of  medi- 
cine-men's rattles  and  charms,  and  kindred  relics  of  a 
departed  faith.  His  scoffing  and  ir  f^verent  air  would 
have  made  his  ancestors'  dust  shake,  but  he  pocketed 
the  chickamin^  or  money,  without  even  a  supersti- 
tious shudder.  The  amateur  curio-buyers  found 
themselves  worsted  and  outgeneralled  on  every  side 
in  this  rich  market  of  Kasa-an  by  a  Juneau  trader, 
who  gathered  up  the  things  by  wholesale,  and,  carry- 
ing them  on  board,  disposed  of  them  at  a  stupendous 
advance.  "  No  mere  spoon,"  said  the  old  blind  -^hief 
as  he  jingled  the  thirteen  dollars  that  he  had  received 
from  this  trader  for  his  twenty  beautifully  carved 
s;?'-  ns,  and  the  tourists  who  had  to  pay  two  dollars  a 
piece  for  these  ancestral  ladles  echoed  his  refrai'.i  and 
began  to  see  how  profits  might  mount  up  in  '  /ading 
in  the  Indian  country.  Dance  blankets  from  the 
Chilkat  country,  woven  in  curious  designs  in  black, 
white,  and  yellow  wool,  spun  from  the  fleece  of  the 
mountain  goat,  were  paraded  by  the  anxious  owners, 
and  the  strangers  elbov/ed  one  another,  stepped  on 
the  dogs,  and  rubbed  the  oil  from  the  dripping  sal- 
mon overhead  in  the  smoky  huts,  in  order  to  see  and 
buy  all  of  these  things. 

Old  Skowl  bid  defiance  to  the  missionaries  while  he 
lived,  and  kept  his  people  strictly  to  the  faith  and  the 
ways  of  their  fathers.  If  they  fell  sick,  the  shaman  or 
inedicine-man  came  with  his  rattles  and  charms,  and 
with  great  hocus-pocus  and  "  Presto  change "  drove 
away  or  propitiated   the  evil    spirits  that  were  tor- 


f 


■I 


i 


THE  SITKAN  ARCHIPELAGO. 


41 


meriting  the  sufferer.  If  the  patient  did  not  imme- 
diattly  respond  to  the  tr^:atment,  the  doctor  would 
accuse  some  one  of  bewitching  his  victim,  and 
demand  that  he  should  be  tortured  or  put  to  death  in 
order  to  relieve  the  afflicted  one.  It  thus  became 
a  serious  matte  for  every  one  when  thw  doctor  was 
sent  for,  as  not  even  the  chiefs  were  safe  from  being 
denounced  by  these  wi.-ards.  No  slave  could  be- 
come a  shamati,  but  the  profession  was  open  to  any 
one  else,  regardless  of  rank  or  riches,  and  the  medi- 
cine man  was  a  self-made  grandee,  unless  some  great 
deformity  marked  him  for  that  calling  from  birth. 
As  preparation  for  his  life-work  he  went  off  by  him- 
self, and  fasted  in  the  woods  for  many  days.  Return- 
ing, he  danced  in  :renzy  about  the  village,  seizing 
and  biting  the  flesh  of  live  dogs,  and  eating  the 
heads  and  tongues  uf  frogs.  This  latter  practice 
accounts  for  the  image  of  the  frog  appearing  on  all 
the  medicine  men's  rattles ;  and  in  the  totemic  car- 
vings the  frog  is  the  symbol  of  the  shaman,  or  speaks 
of  some  incident  connected  with  him.  Each  shaman 
elected  to  himself  a  familiar  spirit,  either  the  whale, 
the  bear,  the  eagle,  or  some  one  of  the  mythological 
beasts,  and  'ited  with  its  qualities,  and  under  the 
guidance  of  this  totemic  spirit,  he  performed  his 
cures  a^id  miracles.  This  token  ".  'as  carved  on  his 
rattles,  his  masks,  drums,  spoons,  canoes,  and  all 
his  belorgings.  It  was  woven  on  his  blankets,  and 
after  death  it  was  carved  on  bits  of  fossil  ivory, 
whale  and  walrus  teeth,  and  sewed  to  his  grave- 
clothes.  The  sJiammi's  body  was  never  burned,  but 
was  laid  in  state  in  the  large  grave  boxes  that  are 
seen   on   the  outskirts   of  every  village.     Columns 


rfmmaismmmmBmmmm 


mm 


42 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


capped  with  to-emic  animals  and  flags  mark  these 
little  houses  of  the  dead,  and  many  of  them  have 
elaborately  carved  and  painted  walls.  The  shaman  s 
hair  was  never  cut  nor  touched  by  profane  hands, 
and  each  hair  was  considered  a  sacred  charm  by 
the  people.  Captain  Merriman,  while  in  command 
of  the  U.  S.  S.  Adams,  repeatedly  interfered  with 
two  sJiamans,  who  were  denouncing  and  putting  to 
torture  the  helpless  women  and  children  in  a  village 
where  the  black  measles  was  raging.  He  found  the 
victims  of  this  witchcraft  persecution  with  their 
ankics  fastened  to  their  wrists  in  dark,  underground 
holes,  or  tied  to  the  rocks  at  low  tide  that  they 
might  be  slowly  drowned  by  the  returning  waters. 
All  threats  failing,  the  two  sliavtaus  were  carried  on 
the  Adamc,  and  the  ship's  barber  sheared  and  shaved 
their  heads.  The  matted  hair  was  carried  down  to 
the  boiler  room  and  burned,  for  if  it  had  been 
thrown  overboard  it  would  have  been  caught  and 
preserved,  and  the  shamans  could  have  retained  at 
least  a  vestige  of  authority.  The  Indians  raised  a 
great  outcry  at  the  prospect  of  harm  or  indignity 
being  offered  their  medicine-men,  but  when  the  two 
shaved  heads  appeared  at  the  gangway,  the  Indians 
set  up  shouts  of  derision,  and  there  were  none  so 
poor  as  to  do  them  honor  after  that.  A  few  such 
salutary  examples  did  much  to  break  up  these  prac- 
tices, and  though  their  notions  of  our  medicine  are 
rather  crude,  they  have  implicit  faith  in  the  white,  or 
"  Boston  doctors." 

If  these  fish-eating,  canoe-paddling  Indians  of  the 
northwest  coast  are  superior  to  the  hunters  and 
horsemen  of  the  western  plains,  the  Haidas  are  the 


THE  srfKAN  AliCUIPELAGO. 


48 


most  remarkable  of  the  coast  tribes,  and  offer  a  fas- 
cinating study  to  anyone  interested  in  native  races 
and  fellow  man.  From  Cape  Fox  to  Mount  St.  Elias 
the  Indians  of  the  Alaska  coast  are  known  by  the 
generic  name  of  Thlinkets,  but  in  the  subdivision  of 
the  Thlinkets  into  tribes,  or  kivansy  the  liaidas  are 
not  included.  The  Thlinkets  consider  the  Haidas  as 
aliens,  but,  except  in  the  language,  they  have  many 
things  in  common,  and  it  takes  the  ethnologist's  eye 
to  detect  the  differences.  The  greater  part  of  the 
Haida  tribe  proper  inhabit  the  Queen  Charlotte 
Islands  in  the  northern  part  of  British  Columbia,  and 
the  few  bands  living  in  villages  in  the  southern  part  of 
Alaska  are  said  to  be  malcontents  and  secessionists, 
who  paddled  away  and  found  hemes  for  themselves 
across  Dixon  Entrance.  I  have  neard  it  stated,  with- 
out much  authority  to  sustain  it,  however,  that  old 
Skowl  was  a  deserter  of  this  kind,  and,  "101:  approving 
of  some  of  the  political  methods  of  the  other  chiefs 
in  his  native  village,  withdrew  with  his  followers  and 
founded  a  colony  in  Kasa-an  Bay.  This  aboriginnl 
"  mugwump,"  as  he  would  be  rated  in  the  slang  of  th. 
day,  was  conservative  in  other  things,  and  his  people 
have  the  same  old  customs  and  traditions  as  the  Hai- 
das of  the  original  villages  on  the  Queen  Charlotte 
Islands. 

Where  the  Haidas  really  did  come  from  is  an  un- 
ending puzzle,  and  in  Alaska  the  origin  and  migra- 
tion of  races  are  subjects  continually  claiming  one's 
attention.  There  is  enough  to  bo  seen  by  superficial 
glances  to  suggest  an  Oriental  origin,  and  those  who 
believe  in  the  emigration  of  the  Indians  from  Asia  by 
way  of  Behring  Straits,  or  the  natural  causeway  of  the 


44 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


Aleutian  Islands,  in  prehistoric  times,  find  an  array  of 
strange  suggestions  and  resemblances  among  the 
Haidas  to  encourage  their  theories.  That  the  name 
of  this  tribe  corresponds  to  the  name  of  the  great 
mountain  range  of  Japan  may  be  a  mere  coincidence, 
but  a  few  scholars  who  have  visited  them  say  that 
there  are  many  Japanese  words  and  idioms  in  their 
language,  and  that  the  resemblance  of  the  Haidas  to 
the  Ainos  of  northern  Japan  is  striking  enough  to 
suggest  some  kinship.  Opposed  to  this,  however,  is 
the  testimony  of  Marchand,  the  French  voyager,  who 
visited  the  Haidas  in  1791,  and  recognizing  Aztec 
words  and  terminations  in  their  speech,  and  resem- 
blances to  Aztec  work  in  their  monuments  and  picture- 
writings,  first  started  the  theory  that  they  were  from 
the  south,  and  descendants  of  those  who,  driven  out 
of  Mexico  by  Cortez,  vanished  m  boats  to  the  north. 
To  continue  the  puzzle,  the  Haidas  have  some  Apache 
words  in  their  vocabulary,  and  have  the  samx  gro- 
tesque dance-masks,  and  many  of  the  same  dances 
and  ceremonies  that  Gushing  describes  in  his 
sketches  of  life  among  the  Zunis  in  New  Mexico. 
Hon.  James  G.  Swan,  of  Port  Townsend,  who  has 
given  thirty  years  to  a  study  of  the  Indians  of  the 
northwest  coast,  has  lately  given  much  attention  to 
the  Haidas  of  the  Queen  Charlotte  Islands,  and  has 
made  large  collections  of  their  implements  and  art 
works  for  the  Smithsonian  Institute.  He  found  the 
Haida  tradition  and  representation  of  the  great  spirit, 
—  the  Thunder  Bird,  —  to  be  the  same  as  that  of  the 
Aztecs,  and  when  he  showed  sketches  of  Aztec  car- 
vings to  the  Haidas  they  seemed  to  recognize  and  un- 
derstand them  at  once.     Copper  images  and  relics 


.   i,.  ..'•   *jL  ftA'/fei»..  JLi'kJiLi 


,■■!*■ 


THE  SJTKAi:    .RCHIPELAGO. 


45 


found  in  their  possession  were  identical  with  some 
silver  images  found  in  ruins  in  Guatemala  by  a  British 
archaeologist.  Judge  Swan  has  collected  many 
strange  legends  and  allegories  during  his  canoe  jour- 
neys to  the  isolated  Haida  villages,  and  his  guide  and 
attendant,  Johnny  Kit-Elswa,  who  conducts  him  to 
the  great  October  feasts  and  dances,  is  a  clever 
young  Haida  silversmith  and  a  remarkable  genius. 
Judge  Swan  has  written  a  memoir  on  Haida  tattoo 
masks,  paintings,  and  heraldic  columns,  which  was 
published  as  No.  26y  of  the  Smithsonian  Contributions 
to  Knowledge,  January,  1874.  In  The  West  Shore 
magazine  of  August,  1884,  he  published  a  long  arti- 
cle with  illustrations  upon  the  same  subjects,  and  his 
library  and  cabinet,  his  journals  and  sketch-books, 
contain  many  wonderful  things  relating  to  the  history 
and  life  of  these  strange  people. 


a" 


.1.1.  V  JUliilJlliWMI 


46 


aOVTUER]^  ALASKA. 


CHAPTER  V. 


FORT    WRANGELL    AND    THE    STIK!N^. 


THOSE  who  believe  that  all  Alaska  is  a  place  of 
perpetual  rain,  fog,  snow,  and  ice  would  be 
quickly  disabused  could  they  spend  some  of  the  ideal 
summer  days  in  that  most  lovely  harbor  of  Fort  Wran- 
gell.  Each  time  the  sky  was  clearer  and  the  air 
milder  than  before,  and  on  the  day  of  my  third  visit 
the  fresh  beams  of  the  morning  sun  gave  an 
infinite  charm  to  the  landscape,  as  we  turned  from 
Clarence  Straits  into  the  narrower  pass  between  the 
islands,  and  sailed  across  waters  that  reflected  in 
shimmering,  pale  blue  and  pearly  lights  the  wonder- 
ful panorama  of  mountains.  Though  perfectly  clear, 
the  light  was  softened  and  subdued,  and  even  on 
such  a  glorious  sunny  morning  there  was  no  glare  nor 
harshness  in  the  atmosphere.  This  pale,  soft  light 
gave  a  dreamy,  poetic  quality  to  the  scenery,  and 
the  first  ranges  of  mountains  above  the  water  shaded 
from  the  deep  green  and  russet  of  the  nearer  pine 
forests  to  azure  and  purple,  where  their  further  sum- 
mits were  outlined  against  the  sky  or  the  snow-cov- 
ered peaks  that  were  mirrored  so  faithfully  in  the  long 
stretches  of  the  channel.  The  sea  water  lost  its 
deep  green  tints  at  that  point,  and  was  discolored  and 


.■ 


I 


rUE  SiTKAy  ARCHIPELAGO. 


47 


tinged  to  a  muddy  tea  green  by  the  fresh  current  of 
the  Stikine  River,  which  there  reaches  the  ocean. 

The  great  circle  of  mountains  and  snow-peaks,  and 
the  stretch  of  calm  waters  lying  in  this  vast  landlocked 
harbor,  give  Fort  WrangcU  an  enviable  situation. 
The  little  town  reached  its  half-century  of  existence 
last  summer,  but  no  celebrations  stirred  the  placid, 
easy-going  life  of  its  people.  It  was  founded  in 
1834  by  order  of  Baron  Wrangell,  then  Governor 
of  Russian  America  and  chief  director  of  the  fur 
company,  who  sent  the  Captain-Lieut.  Dionysius 
Feodorovich  Zarembo  down  from  Sitka  to  erect  a 
stockade  post  on  the  small  tongue  of  land  now  occu- 
pied by  the  homes,  graves,  and  totem  poles  of  the 
Indian  village.  It  was  known  at  first  as  the  trading 
post  of  St.  Dionysius,  and,  later,  it  assumed  the  name 
of  Wrangell,  the  prefix  of  Fort  being  added  during 
the  time  that  the  United  States  garrisoned  it  with 
two  companies  of  the  21st  Infantry.  The  Govern- 
ment began  building  a  now  stockade  fort  there  imme- 
diately after  the  transfer  of  the  territory  in  1867,  and 
troops  occupied  it  until  1870,  when  they  vvere  with- 
drawn, the  post  abandoned,  and  the  property  sold  for 
$500.  The  discovery  of  the  Cassiar  gold  mines  on 
the  head  waters  of  the  vStikine  River  in  1874  sent  a 
tide  of  wild  life  into  the  deserted  street  of  Fort 
Wrangell,  and  the  military  were  ordered  back  in 
1875  and  remained  until  1877,  when  General  How- 
ard drew  off  his  forces,  and  the  government  finally 
recalled  the  troops  from  all  the  posts  in  Alaska. 

During  the  second  occupation  of  the  barracks  and 
quarters  at  Fort  Wrangell,  the  War  Depai  tment  helped 
itself  to  the  property,  and,  assigning  a  jiominal  sum 


48 


SOUTlIKliN  ALASKA. 


for  rent,  held  the  fort  against  the  protest  of  the  owner. 
The  Cassiar  mines  were  booming  then,  and  I'^ort 
Wrangell  took  on  something  of  the  excitement  of  a 
mining  town  itself,  and  being  at  the  head  of  ocean 
navigation,  where  all  merchandise  had  to  be  trans- 
ferred to  small  steamers  and  canoes,  rents  for  stores 
and  warehouses  were  extravagantly  high.  Every  shed 
could  bring  a  fabulous  price.  The  unhappy  owner, 
who  rejoices  in  the  euj)honious  name  of  W.  King 
Lear,  could  only  gnash  his  teeth  and  violently  pro- 
test against  the  monthly  warrants  and  vouchers  given 
him  by  the  commandant  of  the  post.  Since  the 
troops  have  gone,  the  Government  has  done  other 
strange  things  with  the  property  that  it  once  sold  in 
due  form,  and  Mr.  Lear  has  a  just  and  plain  claim 
against  the  War  Department  for  damages.  The  bar- 
racks and  hospital  of  the  old  fort  are  now  occupied  by 
thQ  Presbyterian  Mission.  No  alteration,  repairs,  or 
improveuK  ts  having  been  made  for  many  years,  the 
stockade  is  gradually  becoming  more  ruinous,  weather- 
worn, and  picturesque  each  year,  and  the  overhang- 
ing block-house  at  one  corner  is  already  a  most 
sketchable  bit  of  bleached  and  lichen-covered  logs. 
The  main  street  of  Fort  Wrangell,  untouched  by 
the  hoof  of  horse  or  mule  for  these  many  years,  is  a 
wandering  grass-grown  lane  that  straggles  along  for 
a  few  hundred  feet  from  the  fort  gate  and  ends  in  a 
foot-path  along  the  beach.  The  "  Miners'  Palace 
Restaurant,"  and  other  high-sounding  signs,  remain 
as  relics  of  the  livelier  days,  and  listless  Indian 
women  sit  in  rows  and  groups  on  the  'unpainted 
porches  of  the  trading  stores.  They  are  a  quiet, 
rather  languid  lot  of  klootchmans,  slow  and  deliberate 


3 


THE  8ITKAN  AltlJIIirELAGO. 


49 


of  speech,  and  not  at  all  clamorous  for  customers,  as 
they  squat  or  lie  face  downward,  like  so  many  seals, 
before  their  baskets  of  wild  berries.  In  the  stores, 
the  curio  departments  are  well  stocked  with  elabo- 
rately carved  spoons  made  of  the  black  horns  of  the 
mountain  goat ;  with  curiously-fashioned  halibut  hooks 
and  halibut  clubs;  with  carved  wooden  trays  and 
bowls,  in  which  oil,  fish,  berries,  and  food  have  been 
mixed  for  years  ;  with  stone  pipes  and  implements 
handed  down  from  that  early  age,  and  separate  store- 
rooms are  filled  with  the  skins  of  bears,  foxes,  squir- 
rels, mink,  and  marten  that  are  staple  articles  of  trade. 
Occasionally  there  can  be  found  fine  specimens  of  a 
gray  mica  slate  set  full  of  big  garnet  crystals,  like 
plums  in  a  pudding,  or  sprinkled  through  with  finer 
garnets  that  show  points  of  brilliancy  and  fine  color. 
This  stone  is  found  on  the  banks  of  a  small  creek  near 
the  mouth  of  the  Stikine  River,  and  great  slabs  of  it 
arc  blasted  off  and  brought  to  Fort  Wrangell  by  the 
boat-load  to  be  broken  up  into  small  cabinet  specimens 
in  time  for  the  tourist  season  each  summer.  None  of 
the  garnets  are  clear  or  perfect,  and  the  blasting  fills 
them  with  seams  and  flaws.  The  best  silver  bracelets 
at  Fort  Wrangell  are  made  by  a  lame  Indian,  who 
as  the  chief  artificer  and  silversmith  of  the  tribe  has 
quite  a  local  reputation.  His  bracelets  are  beauti- 
fully chased  and  decorated,  but  unfortunately  for  the 
integrity  of  Stikine  art  traditions,  he  has  given  up 
carving  the  emblematic  beasts  of  native  heraldry  on 
heavy  barbaric  wristlets,  and  now  only  makes  the 
most  slender  bangles,  adapted  from  the  models  in  an 
illustrated  "jeweller's  catalogue  that  some  Philistine 
has   sent   him.     Worse  yet,  he   copies  the  civilized 


60 


SOUHIElty  ALASKA, 


spread  eagle  from  the  half-dollar,  and,  one  can  only 
shake  his  head  sadly  to  see  Stikine  art  so  corrupted 
and  debased.  For  all  this,  the  lame  man  cannot 
make  bracelets  fast  enough  to  supply  the  market, 
and  at  three  dollars  a  pair  for  the  narrower  ones  he 
pockets  great  profits  during  the  steamer  days. 

On  the  water  side  of  the  main  street  there  is  a 
queer  old  flat-bottomed  river-boat,  stranded  high  and 
dry,  that  in  its  day  made  ;^I3$,0CXD  clear  each  sea- 
son that  it  went  up  the  Stikine.  It  enriched  its 
owner  while  in  the  water,  and  after  it  went  ashore 
was  a  profitable  venture  as  a  hotel.  This  Rudder 
Grange,  built  over  from  stem  to  stern,  and  green 
with  moss,  is  so  settled  into  the  grass  and  earth  that 
only  the  shape  of  the  bow  and  the  empty  box  of  the 
stern  wheel  really  declare  its  original  purpcse.  There 
is  a  bakeshop  in  the  old  engine-room,  and  for  the 
rest  it  is  the  Chinatown  of  Fort  VVrangell.  A  small 
cinnamon-bear  cub  gambolled  in  the  street  before  this 
boat-house,  and  it  stood  on  its  hind  legs  and  sniffed 
the  air  curiously  when  it  saw  the  captain  of  the  ship 
coming  down  the  street,  bestowing  sticks  of  candy  on 
every  child  in  the  way.  Bruin  came  in  for  his  share, 
and  formed  the  centre  for  a  group  that  watched  him 
chew  up  mint  sticks  and  pick  his  teeth  with  his  sharp 
little  claws. 

The  houses  of  the  Indian  village  string  along  the 
beach  in  a  disconnected  way,  all  of  them  low  and 
square,  built  of  rough  hewn  cedar  and  pine  planks,  and 
roofed  over  with  large  planks  resting  on  heavy  log 
beams.  One  door  gives  entrance  to  an  interior,  often 
twenty  and  forty  feet  square,  and  several  families  live 
in  one  of  these  houses,  sharing  the  same  fireplace  in 


mml^ 


THE  SITKAN  ARf'IlIPKLAGO. 


51 


the  centre,  and  keeping  peacefully  to  their  own  sides 
and  corners  of  the  common  habitation.  Heraldic  de- 
vices in  outline  sometimes  ornament  the  gable  front 
of  the  house,  but  no  paint  is  wasted  on  the  interior, 
where  smoke  darkens  everything,  the  drying  salmon 
drip  grease  from  the  frames  overhead,  and  dogs  and 
children  tumble  carelessly  around  the  fire  and  over 
the  pots  and  saucepans.  The  entrances  have  some- 
times civilized  doors  on  hinges,  but  the  aborigine 
fashion  is  a  portihc  of  sealskin  or  walrus  hide,  or  of 
woven  grass  mats.  When  one  of  the  occupants  of 
a  house  dies  he  is  never  taken  out  by  the  door  where 
the  others  enter,  but  a  plank  is  torn  off  at  the  back 
or  side,  or  the  body  is  hoisted  out  through  the  smoke 
hole  in  the  roof,  to  keep  the  spirits  away. 

Before  many  of  the  houses  are  tall  cedar  posts  and 
poles,  carved  with  faces  of  men  and  beasts,  repre- 
senting events  in  their  genealogy  and  mythology. 
These  tall  totems  are  the  shrines  and  show  places 
of  Fort  Wrangell,  and  on  seeing  them  all  the  ship's 
company  made  the  hopeless  plunge  into  Thlinket 
mythology  and  there  floundered  aimlessly  until  the 
end  of  the  trip.  There  is  nothing  more  flexible  or 
susceptible  of  interpretations  than  Indian  traditions, 
and  the  Siwash  himself  enjoys  nothing  so  much  as 
misleading  and  fooling  the  curious  white  man  in 
the':---  matters.  The  truth  about  these  totems  and 
their  carvings  never  will  be  quite  known  until  their 
innate  humor  is  civilized  out  of  the  natives,  but 
meanwhile  the  white  man  vexes  himself  with  ethnolo- 
gical theories  and  suppositions.  These  totems  are  for 
the  most  part  picture  writings  that  tell  a  i)lain  story 
to  every  Siwash,  and  record  the  great  events  in  the 


52 


tiOVTIIKliN  ALASKA. 


f 


history  of  the  man  who  erects  them.  They  are  only 
erected  by  the  wealthy  and  powerful  members  of  the 
tribe,  and  the  cost  of  carving  a  cedar  log  fifty  feet 
long,  and  the  attendant  feasts  and  ceremonies  of  the 
raising,  bring  their  value,  according  to  Indian  esti- 
mates, up  to  one  thousand  and  two  thousand  dol- 
lars. The  subdivisions  of  each  tribe  into  distinct 
families  that  take  for  their  crest  the  crow,  the  bear, 
the  eagle,  the  whale,  the  wolf,  and  the  fox,  give  to 
each  of  these  sculptured  devices  its  great  meaning. 
The  totems  show  by  their  successive  carvings  the 
descent  and  alliances  of  the  great  families,  and  the 
great  facts  and  incidents  of  their  history.  The  rep- 
resentations of  these  heraldic  beasts  and  birds  are 
conventionalized  after  certain  fixed  rules  of  their  art, 
and  the  grotesque  heads  of  men  and  animals  are 
highly  colored  according  to  other  set  laws  and  limi- 
tations. Descent  is  counted  on  the  female  side,  and 
the  first  emblem  at  the  top  of  the  totem  is  that  of 
the  builder,  and  next  that  of  the  great  family  from 
which  he  is  descended  through  his  mother. 

In  some  cases  two  totem  poles  are  erected  before  a 
house,  one  to  show  the  descent  on  the  female  side, 
and  one  to  give  the  generations  of  the  male  side,  and  a 
pair  of  these  poles  was  explained  for  us  by  one  of  the 
residents  of  Fort  Wrangell,  who  has  given  some  study 
to  these  matters.  The  genealogical  column  of  the 
mother's  side  has  at  the  top  the  eagle,  the  great  tote^n 
or  crest  of  the  family  to  which  she  belonged.  Below 
the  eagle  is  the  image  of  a  child,  and  below  that  the 
beaver,  the  frog,  the  eagle,  the  frog,  and  the  frog  for 
a  third  time,  shuw  the  generations  and  the  sub- 
families  of  the  female  side.     By  some  interpreters 


THE  SITKA \  AliCrilPELACiO. 


53 


the  frog  is  believed  to  indicate  a  pestilence  or  some 
great  disaster,  but  others  niuintain  that  it  is  the 
recognized  crest  of  one  of  the  sub-families.  The 
male  toU-M  })ole  has  at  the  top  the  image  of  the  chief, 


■    •> 


4 


TOTEM    POLES    AT   FORT   WRANOELL. 

wearing  his  conical  hat,  below  that  his  great  totems 
the  crow.  Succeeding  the  crow  is  the  image  of  a 
child,  then  three  frogs,  and  at  the  base  of  the 
column  the  eagle,  the  great  totem  of  the  builder's 
mother. 


54 


SOUTHEIiN  ALASKA. 


in  front  of  one  chief's  bouse  a  very  natural-looking 
bear  is  crouched  on  the  top  of  a  pole,  gazing  down  at 
his  black  foot-tracks,  which  are  carved  on  the  sides 
of  the  column.  A  crossbeam  resting  on  posts  near 
this  same  house  used  to  show  three  frogs  sitting  in 
line,  and  other  grotesque  fantasies  are  scattered  about 
the  village.  With  the  advance  of  civilization  the 
Indians  are  losing  their  reverence  for  these  heraldic 
monuments,  and  some  have  been  dcstrc^  ed  and  others 
sold;  for  the  richest  of  these  natives  are  so  mrrcenary 
that  they  do  not  scruple  to  sell  anything  that  belongs 
to  ^hem.  The  disaj:)pear.ince  of  the  /ofcm  poles 
would  rob  these  villages  of  their  greatest  interest  for 
the  tourists,  and  the  ethnologist  who  would  solve  the 
mysteries  and  read  the  pictures  finally  aright,  should 
hasten  to  this  rich  and  neglected  field. 

In  their  mythology,  which,  as  now  known,  is  sadly 
involved  through  the  medium  of  so  many  incorrect 
and  perverted  explanations,  the  crow  or  raven  stands 
supreme  as  the  creator  and  the  first  of  all  created 
things.  He  made  everything,  and  all  life  comes  from 
him.  After  he  had  made  the  world,  he  created  woman 
and  then  man,  making  her  «"preme  as  representative 
of  the  crow  family,  while  man,  created  las^  is  the  head 
of  tlic  wolf  or  warrior's  family.  From  them  sprang 
the  sub-families  of  the  whale,  the  bear,  the  eagle,  the 
beaver,  and  the  frog.  The  Stikine  Indians  have  a 
tradition  of  the  deluge,  in  which  the  chosen  pair  '.vere 
given  th^  shape  of  crows  until  the  water  had  sub- 
sided, when  they  again  returned  to  the  earth  and 
peopled  it  wit'i  their  descendants.  No  alliances  are 
ever  made  within  the  great  families,  and  a  crow  never 
marries  a  crow,  but  rather  a  member  of  the  whale, 


I 


mm 


GRAVK    AT    luUr    WKANCKLL 


THE  SITKA N  ABCUIPELAGO. 


57 


bear,  or  wol'  families.  The  man  takes  the  totem  of 
his  wile's  f:.mily,  and  fights  with  them  when  the 
great  family  feuds  arise  in  the  tribe. 

On  many  of  the  totem  poles  tlie  chiefs  are  repre- 
sented as  wearing  tall,  conical  hats,  similar  to  those 
worn  by  certain  classes  in  China,  and  this  fact  has 
been  assumed  by  many  ardent  ethnologists  to  give 
certain  proof  of  the  oriental  origin  of  these  people, 
and  their  emigration  by  way  of  Behring's  Straits. 
Others  explain  the  storied  hats  piled  one  on  top  of 
another,  as  indicating  the  number  of  potlatches,  or 
great  feasts,  that  the  builder  has  given.  Over  the 
graves  of  the  dead,  which  are  square  log  boxes  or 
houses,  they  put  full-length  representations  of  the 
dead  man's  totemic  beast,  or  smooth  poles  finished 
at  the  top  with  the  family  crest.  One  old  chief's 
tomb  at  Kort  Wrangell  has  a  very  realistic  whale 
on  its  moss-grown  roof,  another  a  bear,  and  another 
an  otter.  The  Indians  cremated  their  dead  until  the 
arrival  of  the  missionaries,  who  have  steadily  opposed 
the  practice.  The  Indian's  idea  of  a  hell  of  ice  made 
him  reason  that  he  who  was  buried  in  the  earth  or 
the  sea  would  be  cold  forever  after,  while  he  whose 
ashes  were  burned  would  be  warm  and  comfortable 
throughout  eternity. 

These  Thlinket  Indians  of  the  coast  have  broad 
heavy  faces,  small  eyes,  and  anything  but  quickness  or 
intelligence  in  their  expression.  They  are  slow  and 
deliberate  in  speech,  lingering  on  and  emphasizing 
each  aspirate  and  guttural,  and  any  theories  as  to  a 
fish  diet  promoting  the  activity  of  the  brain  are 
dispersed  after  watching  these  salmon-fed  natives  for 
a   few  weeks.     Many  of  their   customs   are   such   a 


i 


S8 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


travesty  and  burlesque  on  our  civilized  ways  as  to 
show  that  the  same  principles  and  motives  underlie 
all  human  action.  When  those  expensive  trophies  of 
decorative  art,  the  /o/nn  poles,  are  raised,  the  event 
is  celebrated  by  the  whole  tribe,  A  common  Indian 
can  raise  himself  to  distinction  and  nobility  by  giving 
many  feasts  and  setting  up  a  pole  to  commemorate 
them.  After  he  owns  a  totem  pole  he  can  aspire  to 
greater  eminence.  That  man  is  considered  the 
richest  who  gives  most  away,  and  at  the  great  feasts 
Q>x  potlatchcs  that  accompany  a  house-warming  or  pole- 
raising,  they  nearly  beggar  themselves.  All  the 
delicacies  of  the  Alaska  market  are  provided  by  the 
canoe-full,  and  the  guests  sit  around  the  canoes  and 
dip  their  ancestral  spoons  into  the  various  com- 
pounded dishes.  Blankets,  calico,  and  money  are 
distributed  as  souvenirs  on  the  same  principle  as 
costly  f  v/rs  are  given  for  the  German.  His  rank 
and  riches  increase  in  exact  ratio  as  he  tears  up  and 
gives  away  his  blankets  and  belongings ;  and  the 
Thlinket  has  satisfied  pride  to  console  himself  with 
while  he  struggles  through  the  hard  times  that  follow 
a  potlatch. 

In  the  summer  season  Fort  Wrangell  is  a  peaceful, 
quiet  place  ;  the  climate  is  a  soothing  one,  and  Prof. 
Muir  extolled  the  "  poultice-like  atmosphere"  which 
so  calms  the  senses.  The  Indians  begin  to  scatter 
on  their  annual  fishing  trips  in  June,  and  come  back 
with  their  winter  supplies  of  salmon  in  the  early  fall. 
Many  of  the  houses  were  locked  or  boarded  up,  while 
the  owners  had  gone  away  to  spend  the  summer  at 
some  other  watering-place.  One  absentee  left  this 
notice  on  his  front  door  :  — 


THE  SITKAN  AliCHIPELAGO. 


59 


LET    NO    ONK    UPEN     OK    SHUT    THIS 
HOUSE    DUKLNG    MV    ABSENCE. 


Over  another  locked  door  was  this  name  and  legend, 
which  combines  a  well-witnessed  and  legal  testament, 
together  with  the  conventional  door-plate  of  the 
white  man  :  — 


A  NAT  I.  A 

SH. 

Let  all 

tliat 

read  know 

that 

I 

Am  a  f 

iciul 

lo  tiie  wli 

tes. 

Let 

no 

One  mo 

lest 

this  house. 

In 

case 

ot 

mv 

Death  i 

t  bel 

uiigs  to  my 

wilt. 

Thus  wrote  Anatlash,  a  man  of  tall  totems  and 
many  blankets  ;  and  stanzas  in  bkuik  verse  after  the 
same  manner  decorated  the  doonvay  of  many  Thlin- 
ket  r^ bodes. 

The  family  groups  within  the  houses  were  as  inter- 
esting and  })icturesque  as  the  totem  poles  without  ; 
and  strangers  were  free  to  enter  without  formality, 
and  study  the  ways  of  the  best  native  society  with- 
out hindrance.  These  people  nearly  all  wear  civilized 
garments,  and  in  the  baronial  halls  of  Fort  Wrangeil 
there  aie  imposing  heaps  of  red-covered  and  brass- 
bound  trunks  that  contain  stores  of  blankets,  festal 
garments,  and  family  treasures.  In  all  the  houses  the 
Indians  went  right  on  with  their  bTeakfasts  and  do- 
mestic duties  regardless  of  our   presence  ;  and   the 


60 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


white  visitors  made  friiem selves  at  home,  scrutinized 
and  turned  over  everything  they  saw  with  an  effron- 
tery that  would  be  resented,  if  indulged  in  in  kind 
by  I'-e  Indians.  The  women  hud  the  shrewdest  eye 
to  money-making,  and  tried  to  sell  ancient  and 
greasy  baskets  and  broken  spoons  when  *^^hev  hctd 
nothing  else  in  the  curio  line.  In  one  house  two 
giggling  damsels  were  playing  on  an  accordeon  when 
we  entered,  but  stoj)ped  and  hid  their  heads  in  their 
blankets  at  sight  of  us.  An  old  gentleman,  in  a 
single  abbreviated  garment,  crouched  by  the  fireside, 
frying  a  dark  and  suspicious-looking  dough  in  seal 
oil ;  and  the  coolness  and  self-possession  with  which 
he  rose  and  stepped  about  his  habitation  were  admira- 
ble. He  was  a  grizzled  and  surly-looking  old  fellow, 
but  from  the  number  of  trunks  and  fur  robes  i)iled 
around  the  walls,  he  was  evidently  a  man  of  wealth, 
and  his  airy  costume  rather  a  matter  of  taste  than 
economy.  Many  of  the  men  showed  us  buckskin 
pouches  containing  little  six-inch  sticks  of  polished 
cedar  that  they  use  in  their  great  social  games.  These 
gambling  sticks  are  distinguished  by  different  mark- 
ings in  red  and  black  lines,  and  the  game  consists  in 
one  man  taking  a  handful,  shufTling  them  around  under 
his  blanket,  and  making  the  others  guess  the  marks 
of  the  first  stick  drawn  out.  These  Indians  are 
great  gamblers,  and  they  spend  hours  and  days  at 
their  fascinating  games.  They  shufHe  the  sticks  to 
see  who  shall  go  out  to  cut  and  gather  firewood  in 
winter,  and  if  a  man  is  seen  crawling  out  after  an 
armful  of  logs,  his  neighbors  shout  with  derision  at 
him  as  a  loser. 

In  addition  to  their  silver  bracelets,  their  silver  ear- 


r 


1 


^■■i^BW 


^»^ 


THE  .SITKA y   AliCJlIPELAOO. 


61 


rings  and  finger  rings,  many  of  the  women  keep  up  the 
old  custom  of  wearing  nose  rings  and  lij)  rings,  that  no 


W'ii^:r<i5lijjlli''/i" 


;">:^ 


SII.VKR    HRACKLETS. 


amount  of  missionary  and  catechism,  seemingly,  can 
brccik  them  of.  The  lip  rings  used  to  be  worn  by  all 
but  slaves,  and  the  three  kinds  worn  by  the  women 
of  all  the  island  tribes  are  marks  of  age  that  take  the 
place  of  family  records.  When  a  young  girl  reaches 
marriageable  age,  a  long,  flat-headed  silver  pin,  aii 
inch  in  length,  is  thrust  through  the  lower  lip.  After 
the   marriage  festival  the  Thlinkct  dame  assumes  a 


LABRKTl'ES. 


bone  or  ivory  button  a  quarter  or  half  inch  across. 
This  matronly  badge  is  a  mere  collar-button  com- 
pared to  the  two-inch  plugs  of  wood  that  they  wear 
in  their  under  lips  when  they  reach  the  sere  and 
yellow  leaf  of  existence.     This  big  labrette  gives  the 


62 


.so  UTIIEUN  u  1  LA  SKA. 


last  touch  of  hidcousness  to  the  wrinkled  and  blear- 
eyed  old  women  that  one  finds  wearing  them,  and  it 
was  from  the  Russian  name  for  this  trough  in  the 
lip  —  kolosh  —  that  all  the  tribes  of  the  archipelago 
were  known  as  Koloshians,  as  distinguished  from  the 
Aleuts,  the  Innuits,  and  Esquimaux  of  the  north- 
west. 

Far  less  picturesque  than  the  natives  in  their  own 
houses  were  the  little  Indian  girls  at  the  mission- 
school  in  tlic  old  fort.  Combed,  cleaned,  and  mar- 
shalled in  stiff  rows  to  recite,  sing,  and  go  through 
calisthenic  exercises,  they  were  not  nearly  so  strik- 
ing for  studies  and  sketches  aboriginal,  but  more 
hopeful  to  contemplate  as  fellow-beings.  Clah,  a 
Christianized  Indian  from  Fort  Simpson,  B.  C,  was 
the  first  to  attempt  mission  work  among  the  In- 
dians at  Fort  Wrangell.  In  1877  Mrs.  McFarland 
was  sent  out  by  the  Presbyterian  Board  of  Missions, 
after  years  of  mission  work  in  Colorado  and  the  west, 
and,  taking  Clah  on  her  staff,  she  labored  untiringly 
to  establish  the  school  and  open  the  home  for  Indian 
girls.  Others  have  joined  her  in  the  work  at  Fort 
Wrangell,  and  everyone  on  the  coast  testifies  to  good 
results  already  attained  by  her  labors  and  example. 
She  is  known  and  reverenced  among  all  the  tribes, 
and  the  Indians  trust  in  her  implicitly,  and  go  to  her 
for  advice  and  aid  in  every  emergency.  With  the 
establishment  of  the  new  industrial  mission-school  at 
Sitka,  Mr.s.  McFarland  will  be  transferred  to  the 
girls'  department  of  that  institution.  The  Rev^  Hall 
Young  and  his  wife  have  devoted  themselves  to  the 
good  cause  at  Fort  Wrangell,  and  will  continue  there 
in  charge  of   the  church  and  school.     The   Presby- 


rut:  siTKAy  aihuwelma). 


63 


i 


terian  missions  have  the  strongest  hold  on  the  coast, 
and  the  Catholics,  who  built  a  church  at  Fort  Wran- 
gell,  have  given  up  the  mission  there,  and  the  priest 
from  Nanaimo  makes  only  occasional  visits  to  his 
dusky  parish icjners. 

The  steep  hillsitle  back  of  Fort  Wrangell  was 
cleared  of  timber  during  military  occupancy,  and  on 
the  lower  slopes  the  companies  had  fine  gardens, 
which  remain  as  wild  overgrown  meadows  now.  In 
them  the  wild  timothy  grows  six  feet  high,  the  blue- 
berry bushes  are  loaded  with  fruit,  salmon  berries 
show  their  gorgeous  clusters  of  gold  n'ul  scarlet,  and 
the  white  clover  grows  on  long  stems  and  reaches  to 
a  fulness  and  perfection  one  can  never  imagine.  This 
Wrangell  clover  is  the  common  clover  of  the  Fast 
looked  at  through  a  magnifying  glass,  each  blossom 
as  large  and  wide-spread  as  a  double  carnation  pink, 
and  the  fragrance  has  a  strong  spicy  quality  with  its 
sweetness.  The  red  clover  is  not  common,  but  the 
occasional  tops  are  of  the  deepest  pink  that  these 
huge  clover  blossoms  can  wear.  While  the  hillside 
looked  cleared,  there  was  a  deep  and  tangled  thicket 
under  foot,  the  moss,  vines,  and  runners  forming  a 
network  that  it  took  some  skill  to  penetrate  ;  but 
the  view  of  the  curved  beach,  the  ])lacid  channel 
sleeping  in  the  warm  summer  sunshine  like  a  great 
mountain  lake,  and  the  ragged  peaks  of  the  snowy 
range  showing  through  every  notch  and  gap,  well 
repaid  the  climb  through  it.  It  was  a  most  perfect 
day  when  we  climbed  the  ridge,  the  air  as  warm  and 
mellow  as  Indian  summer,  with  even  its  soft  haze 
hung  round  the  mountain  walls  in  the  afternoon,  and 
from  those  superior  heights  we  gazed  in  ecstasy  on 


64 


SOUTH  Kit  X   A  LA  SKA. 


the  scene  and  pitied  all  the  people  who  know  not 
Alaska. 

When  IVofessor  Muir  was  at  Fort  Wrangell  one 
autumn,  he  climbed  to  the  summit  of  this  first  moun- 
tain on  a  stormy  ni.ij^ht  to  listen  to  the  fierce  music  of 
the  winds  in  the  forest.  Just  over  the  ridge  he  found 
a  little  hollow,  and  gathering  a  few  twigs  and 
branches  he  started  a  fire  that  he  gradually  increased 
to  quite  a  blaze.  The  wind  howled  and  roared 
through  the  forest,  and  the  scientist  enjoyed  himself 
to  the  utmost  ;  but  down  in  the  village  the  Indians 
were  terrified  at  the  glow  that  illuminated  the  sky 
and  the  tree-tops.  No  one  could  exi)lain  the  phe- 
nomenon, as  they  could  not  guess  that  it  was  Professor 
Muir  warming  himself  during  his  nocturnal  ramble 
in  the  forest,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that  the 
minister  and  the  teachers  at  the  mission  could  calm 
the  frightened  Indians. 

On  a  second  visit  to  Fort  Wrangell  on  the  IdaJio, 
there  v^as  the  same  warm,  lazy  sunshine  and  soft  still 
air,  and  as  connoisseurs  we  could  the  better  appreciate 
the  fine  carvings  and  ornamental  work  of  these  aes- 
thetic people,  who  decorate  every  household  utensil 
with  their  symbols  of  the  beautiful.  Mr.  Lear,  or 
"  King  I.ear,"  welcomed  us  back  to  his  comfortable 
porch,  and  as  a  special  mark  brought  forth  his  great 
horn  spoon,  a  work  of  the  highest  art,  and  a  bit  of 
bric-a-brac  that  cost  its  possessor  some  four  hundred 
dollars.  Mr.  Lear  is  that  famous  man,  who  "swears 
by  the  great  horn  spoon,"  and  this  elaborately  carved 
spoon,  made  from  the  clear,  amber-tinted  horn  of  the 
musk  ox,  is  more  than  eighteen  inches  long,  wnth  a 
smooth,  graceful  bowl  that  holds  at  least  a  pint.    This 


4 


rilK  si  Ik  AN  AUCHlPELAdO, 


G5 


spoon  constituted  the  sole  assets  of  a  bankrupt  debtor, 
who  failed,  ovviiif;  Mr.  Lear  a  large  sum  ;  and  the 
jocose  trader  first  astonished  us  by  saying  that  he 
had  a  carved  spoon  that  cost  him  four  huntlred  dollars. 
The  amateur  photographers  on  shipboard  raved  at 
sight  of  the  beautiful  amber  spoon  with  its  carved 
luiiidle  inlaid  with  abalone  shell,  and,  rushing  for 
their  cameras,  i)hotographed  it  against  a  gay  back- 
ground of  Chilkat  blankets.  Mr.  Lear  has  refused  all 
offers  to  buy  his  great  horn  spoon,  nuiting  one  per- 
sistent collector  by  assuring  him  that  he  must  keep 
it  to  take  his  medicines  in. 

The  skies  were  as  blue  as  fabled  Italy  when  the 
Idaho  "let  go"  from  Fort  Wrangell  wharf  that  glori- 
ous afternoon,  and  we  left  with  genume  regret.  The 
Coast-.Sui  ve\'  steamer  J/asslcr  came  smoking  around 
the  point  of  an  island  just  as  we  were  leaving  Fort 
Wrangell  ;  and  our  captain,  who  would  rather  lose  his 
dinner  than  miss  a  joke,  fairly  shook  with  laughter 
when  he  saw  the  frantic  signals  of  the  Ilasslfi;  and 
knew  the  tempestuous  frame  of  mind  its  commander 
was  working  himself  up  to.  After  gixingthe  Hasslcr 
sufficient  scare  and  chase,  the  IdaJio  slowed  up,  and 
the  mails  that  she  had  been  carrying  for  three  month.^ 
were  transferred  to  the  Coast-Survey  ship,  while  the 
skippers,  who  arc  close  friends  and  inveterate  jokers, 
exchanged  stiff  and  conventional  greetings,  mild 
sarcasm,  and  dignified  repartee  from  their  respective 
bridges.  The  pranks  that  these  nautical  people  play 
on  one  another  in  these  out-of-the-way  waters  would 
astonish  those  who  have  seen  them  in  dress  uniforms 
anrl  conventional  surroundings,  and  such  experiences 
rank  among  the  unique  side  incidents  of  a  trip. 


66 


SOVrilKUN   ALASKA. 


A  boat-race  of  another  kind  rounded  olf  the  day  of 
my  third  and  hist  \  isit  to  Fort  Wran<;ell,  and  the 
Indians  who  hail  been  waiting  for  a  week  made  ready 
for  a  re<j;atta  when  the  ^iiwon  was  sighted.  It  took 
several  whistles  from  our  impatient  cai)tain  to  get  the 
long  war-canoes  manned  and  at  the  stake-boat ;  and, 
in  this  particular,  boat-races  have  some  points  in 
common  the  world  round.  Kadashaks,  one  of  the 
Stikine  chiefs,  commanded  one  long  canoe  in  which 
sixteen  Indians  sat  on  each  side,  and  another  chief 
rallied  thirty-two  followers  for  his  war-canoe.  It 
was  a  picturesque  sight  when  the  boatmen  were  all 
squatted  in  the  long  dug-outs,  wearing  white  shirts, 
and  colored  handkerchiefs  tied  arountl  their  brows. 
While  they  waited,  each  canoe  and  its  crew  was 
reflected  in  the  still  waters  that  lay  without  a  rii)ple 
around  the  starting-point  near  shore.  When  the 
cannon  on  the  ship's  deck  gave  the  signal,  the  canoes 
shot  forward  like  arrows,  the  broad  paddles  sending 
the  water  in  great  waves  back  of  them,  and  dashing 
the  spray  high  on  either  side.  Kadashaks  and  the 
other  chief  sat  in  the  sterns  to  steer,  and  encouraged 
and  urged  on  their  crews  with  hoarse  grunts  and 
words  of  command,  and  the  Indians,  paddling  as  if 
for  life,  kept  time  in  their  strokes  to  a  savage  chant 
that  rose  to  yells  and  war  whoops  when  the  two 
canoes  fouled  just  off  the  stake-boat.  It  was  a  most 
exciting  boat-race,  and  bers  and  enthusiasm  ran  high 
on  the  steamer's  deck  during  its  progress.  The 
n-nney  that  had  been  subscribed  by  the  traders  in 
the  town  was  divided  between  the  two  crews,  and 
at  night  there  was  a  gv^nd  potlaUh,  or  feast,  in  honor 
of  the  regatta. 


TUK   S 1  Tl\  - 1  V    .1  IK  11 1 1  'EL .  I  (UK 


fi7 


4 


\ 


The  trade  with  the  Cassiar  mines  at  the  head  of  the 
Stikine  River  once  made  Fort  Wranj;ell  an  important 
l)lace,  but  the  rival  boats  that  used  to  race  on  the 
river  have  ^^one  below,  and  the  region  is  nearly  aban- 
doned. As  early  as  1862  the  miners  found  gold  dust 
in  the  bars  near  the  mouth  of  the  river ;  but  it  was 
twelve  years  later  before  Thibert  and  another  trapper, 
crossing  from  Minnesota,  found  the  gold  fieUls  and 
quartz  veins  at  the  hcail-waters  of  the  stream,  three 
hundred  miles  distant  from  Fort  Wrangell,  within  the 
liritish  Columbia  lines.  Immediately  the  army  of 
gold-seekers  turned  there,  leaving  California  and 
the  I'^razer  River  mines,  and  in  1874  there  were 
two*thousand  miners  on  the  ground,  and  the  yield 
was  known  to  have  been  over  one  million  dollars. 
Light-draught,  stern-wheel  steamers  were  put  on  the 
river,  and  the  goods  and  miners  transferred  fiom 
ocean  steamers  at  F(»rt  Wrangell  were  taken  to 
Glenora  at  the  head  of  navigation,  one  hundred  and 
fifty  miles  from  the  mouth.  From  that  point  there 
was  a  steep  mountain  trail  of  another  one  hundred 
and  fifty  miles,  and  pack  trains  of  mules  carried 
freight  on  to  the  diggings.  Freights  from  Fort 
Wrangell  to  the  mines  ranged -at  times  from  twenty 
to  eighty  and  one  hundred  and  sixty  dollars  per  ton  i 
and  in  consequence,  when  the  placers  were  exhausted, 
and  machinery  was  necessary  to  work  the  quart/ 
veins,  the  region  was  abandoned. 

The  official  returns  as  given  by  the  British  Colum- 
bia commissioners  are  not  at  hand  for  all  ofthe  years 
since  the  discovery  of  these  mines,  but  for  the  seven 
years  here  given  they  show  the  great  decrease  in  the 
bullion  yield  of  the  Cassiar  fields  : — 


' .  IIUL^   IJIIUIUUJ 


iii!muiruii.iiikiiHM 


B8  SOUTnEJii\    ALA. SKA. 

Niunhor  of  Gold 

Years.  ininf-is.  product. 

1874 2,000  $1,000,000 

1875 800  1,000,000 

1876 1,500  556,474 

1877 1,-00  499''^30 

ij';79 1,800  

1883 1,000  135.000 

During-  tliis  year  of  1884  the  steamer.^  have  been 
taken  off  i'he  river,  and  Indian  eanoes  are  the  only 
niean.s  of  transportation.  There  are  few  besides  Chi- 
namen '*.'ft  to  v/'>rk  the  exhausted  fields,  and  another 
year  will  probably  find  thcni  in  sole  possession. 
VVh'le  l!ie  mines  were  at  their  best.  Fort  Wrangell 
w'as  the  ^reat  pc^int  of  outHtting  and  departure  ;  and 
after  tht  troops  vvere  withdrawn,  the  miners  made  it 
more  aral  more  a  plaee  of  Tirunken  and  sociable  hiber- 
nation, when  t!!e  .^eveie  w either  of  the  interior  drove 
them  down  the  river.  Thev  conirreiiated  in  irreatest 
numbers  earl}-  in  the  spring,  many  going  up  on  the 
ice  in  ^^Jbruary  or  March,  before  the  river  o])ened  ; 
although  no  mining  could  be  done  until  May,  and  the 
water  froze  in  tl^"  sluices  in  September. 

The  Cassiar  .nmcs  being  in  British  Co'iimbia,  the 
rush  of  trade  on  the  Stikine  River  caused  i.  -my  com- 
plications and  infractions  of  t'.ie  revenue  laws  of  both 
coi  itries,  and  grent  license  vas  aiiovved.  Fhe  exact 
position  where  tiie  boundary  liiie  crosses  the  Stikine 
has  not  yet  been  determined  by  the  two  govern- 
ments, and  in  times  past  it  has  wavered  like  the  iso- 
thermal lines  of  the  coast.  The  diggings  at  Shucks, 
seventy  miles  from  Fort  Wrangell,  were  at  one  time 
in  Alaska  and  next  time  in  British  Columbia  ;  and  the 
Hudson   Bay  Company's  post,  and   even  the  British 


' 


THE  SITKAN  ARCHIPELAGO. 


69 


custom  house,  were  for  a  long  time  on  United  States 
soil  before  being  remo\'ed  beyond  the  debatable  re- 
gion. The  boundary,  as  now  accepted  temporarily, 
crosses  the  river  sixty-five  miles  from  Fort  Wrangell 
at  a  distance  of  ten  marine  leagues  from  the  sea  in  a 
direct  line,  and,  intersecting  the  grave  of  a  British 
miner,  leaves  his  bones  divided  between  the  two 
countries  ;  his  heart  in  the  one,  and  the  boots  in 
which  he  died  in  the  other, 

Vancouver  failed  to  discover  the  Stikine  on  his 
cruise  up  the  continental  shore,  and,  deceived  !  y  the 
shoal  waters,  passed  by  the  mouth.  It  then  remained 
for  the  American  sloop  /Ay/w/,  Captain  Cleveland,  to 
visit  the  delta  and  learn  of  the  great  river  from  the 
natives  in  1799.  The  scenery  of  the  Stikine  River 
is  the  most  wonderful  in  this  region,  and  Prof.  John 
Muir,  the  great  geologist  of  the  Pacific  coast,  epito- 
mized the  valley  of  the  Stikine  as  "a  Yosemite  one 
hi  idred  miles  long."  The  current  of  the  river  is  so 
strong  that  while  it  takes  a  boat  three  days  at  full 
steam  to  get  from  Fort  Wrangell  up  to  Glenora,  the 
trip  back  can  be  made  in  eight  or  twelve  hours,  with 
the  paddle-wheel  reversed  most  of  the  time,  to  hold 
the  boat  back  in  its  wild  flight  down  stream.  It  is  a 
most  dangerous  piece  of  river  navigation,  and" there 
have  been  innumerable  accidents  to  steamboats  antl 
canoes. 

Three  hundred  great  glaciers  are  known  to  drain 
into  the  Stikine,  and  one  hundred  and  one  can  be 
counted  from  the  steamer's  deck  while  going  up  to 
Glenora.  The  first  great  glacier  comes  down  to  the 
river  at  a  place  forty  miles  above  Fort  Wrangell,  and 
fronting  for  seven  miles  on  a  low  moraine  along  the 


m 


Ml 


TO 


sou THE UN  A  LA 8 KA . 


.  t 


river  bank,  is  faced  on  the  opposite  side  by  a  smaller 
glacier.  There  is  an  Indian  tradition  to  the  effect 
that  these  two  i^^laciers  were  once  united,  and  the 
river  ran  through  in  an  arched  tunnel.  To  hnd  out 
whether  it  led  out  to  the  sea,  the  Indians  determined 
to  send  two  of  th  ,ir  number  through  the  tunnel, 
and  with  fine  Indian  logic  they  chose  the  oW<-st 
members  of  their  tribe  to  make  the  perilous  vayage 
into  the  ice  mountain,  arguing  that  they  might  die 
very  soon  anyhow.  The  venerable  Indians  shot  the 
tunnel,  and,  returning  with  the  great  news  of  a  clear 
passageway  to  the  sea,  were  held  in  the  highest  es- 
teem forever  after.  7'his  great  glacier  is  from  five 
hundred  to  seven  hundred  feet  high  on  the  front,  and 
extends  back  for  many  miles  into  tiie  mountains,  its 
surface  broken  and  seamed  with  deep  crevices.  Two 
young  Russian  officers  once  went  down  from  Sitka 
to  explore  this  glacier  to  its  source,  but  never  re- 
turned from  the  ice  kingdom  into  which  they  so 
rashly  ventured.  Further  up,  at  a  sharp  ben.l  of  the 
river  called  tiie  Devil's  Elbow,  there  is  the  mud 
glacier,  which  has  a  width  of  three  miles  and  a  height 
of  two  hundred  or  three  hundred  feet  where  it  faces 
the  river  from  behind  its  moraine.  Beyond  this 
dirt-covered,  boulder-strewn  glacier,  there  is  the 
Grand  Cafion  of  the  Stikine,  a  narrow^  S^'*S"^'  two 
hundred  feet  long  and  one  hundred  feet  wide,  into 
which  the  boiling  current  of  the  river  is  forced,  and 
where  the  steamboats  used  to  struggle  at  full  steam 
for  half  an  hour  before  they  emerged  from  the  per- 
pendicular walls  of  that  frightful  defile.  A  smaller 
cafton  near  it  is  calleil  the  Klootchtnans,  or  Woman's 
CaAon,  the  noble  red  man  being  always  so  exhausted 


THE  SITKAN  ARCHIPELAGO. 


71 


I 


by  poHn<2^,  paddling,  and  tracking  his  canoe  through 
the  Grand  Canon  as  to  leave  the  navigation  of  the 
second  one  entirely  to  his  wife.  The  Big  Riffle,  or 
the  Stikine  RajMds,  is  the  last  of  these  most  danger- 
ous places  in  the  river;  and  at  about  this  point,  where 
the  summit  line  of  the  mountain  range  crosses  the 
river,  the  mythical  boundary  line  is  supposed  to  lie. 
The  country  opens  out  then  into  more  level  stretches, 
and  at  Glenora  and  Telegraph  Creek,  the  steamboats 
leave  their  cargoes  and  stcrt  on  the  wild  sweep  down 
the  river  to  T^'ort  VVrangell  again  As  the  boats  are 
no  longer  running  on  the  river,  future  voyagers  who 
wish  to  see  the  stupendous  scenery  of  this  region 
will  have  to  depend  on  the  Indian  canoes  that  take 
ten  days  for  the  journey  up,  or  else  feast  and  satisfy 
their  imaginations  with  the  thrilling  tales  of  the  old 
Stikine  days  that  can  be  picked  up  on  every  hand, 
and  st!K  j  the  topography  of  the  region  from  the 
maps  of  Prof.   Blake. 


72 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


CHAITKR    VI. 


WRANGKI.L    NARROWS    AND     lAKU    C.LACIKRS. 


IF  there  were  not  so  many  more  wonderful  places 
in  Alaska,  W'rangell  Narrows  would  y;i\c  it  a 
scenie  fame,  and  make  its  fortune  in  the  coming 
centuries  when  touiists  and  yachts  will  crowd  these 
waters,  and  poets  and  seafaring  n(nt.'lists  tlcscrt  the 
Scotch  coast  for  these  n(,rth western  isles.  Instead 
of  William  Black's  everlasting  C)l)an,  and  Stalfa,  :i.nd 
Skye,  and  heroines  with  a  buir  in  their  speech,  we 
will  read  of  Kasa-an  and  Kaigan,  Taku  a:.  1  Chilkat, 
and  maidens  who  lis[)  in  soft  accents  the  deep,  gur- 
gling Chinook,  or  the  older  dialects  of  their  races. 
Wrangell  Narrows  is  a  sinuous  channel  l)etween 
mountainous  islands,  and  for  thiity  miles  it  is  iiard  to 
determine  which  one  of  the  perpentlicular  walls  nt  the 
end  of  the  strait  will  finally  stop  us  with  its  impassa- 
ble front.  There  are  dangerous  ledges  un<l  rocks, 
and  strong  tides  rusiiing  through  this  pnss,  and  die 
average  depth  of  from  four  to  twelve  fr thoms  is  very 
shallow  water  for  Alaska.  Although  long  known  and 
used  by  the  Indians  and  the  Hudson  I^ay  Company's 
traders,  it  was  not  considered  a  safe  inside  passage  ; 
and  as  Vanccniver  had  not  explored  it,  and  there  were 
not  any  complete  charts;  it  was  little  traversed  by 
regular  commerce.     After  United  States  occupation, 


f 


TIIK  SITKA  X   A  m- HIP  EL  AGO. 


•8 


ar.u  the  increased  travel  to  Sitka,  tlie  perils  of  Cape 
Onimaney,  off  the  south  end  of  Baranotf  Island,  quite 
matched  any  dangers  there  might  be  in  the  unknown 
channel.  Captain  R.  VV.  Meade,  in  command  of  the 
U.  S.  S.  Saginaiu,  made  a  survey  (  f  the  Narrows 
in  1869,  and  gradually  the  way  thrt)ugh  the  ledges 
and  Hats  and  tide  rips  became  better  known.  In 
1884  Captain  Coghlan,  commander  of  the  U.  S.  S. 
Adaius  carefully  sounded  and  marked  off  the  channel 
with  stakes  and  buoys,  and  the  navigators  now  only 
look  for  the  favorable  turn  of  the  tide  in  siom^r 
through  the  picturescpie  reaches. 

Leaving  I''ort  Wrangell  in  the  afternoon,  it  was  an 
enchanting  .'ip  up  that  narrow  channel  of  deej:) 
waters,  rippling  between  bold  island  :^hores  and  paral- 
lel mountain  walls.  Besides  the  clear,  emerald  tide, 
reflecting  every  tree  and  rock,  theie  was  the  beauty 
of  foaming  cataracts  leaping  down  the  sides  of  snow- 
caj)ped  mountains,  and  the  grandeur  of  great  glaciers 
pushing  down  through  sharp  ravines,  and  drG;)ping 
miniature  icebergs  into  the  water.  Three  glaciers 
are  visible  at  once  on  the  east  side  of  the  Narrows, 
the  larger  one  >.  vtend'ng  back  some  forty  miles,  and 
measuring  four  miles  across  the  fnmt,  that  faces  the 
water  and  the  iermmal  moraine  it  has  built  up  before 
it.  The  great  glacier  is  known  as  Patterson  Glacier, 
in  honor  of  the  late  Carlisle  Patterson,  of  the  United 
Str.tes  Coast  Survey,  and  is  the  first  in  the  great  line 
of  glaciers  that  one  encounters  along  the  Alaska  coast. 
Under  the  shadow  of  a  cloud  the  glacier  was  a  dirty 
and  uneven  snow  field,  but  touched  by  the  last  light 
of  the  sun  it  was  a  frozen  lake  of  wonderland,  shim- 
mering with   silvery  lights,  and  showing  a  pale  ethe- 


''\ 


k      s 


^ 


74 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


real  green,  and  deciJ,  pure  bluL'.  in  all  the  rifts  and 
erevasses  in  its  icy  front. 

With  the  ai)i)earance  of  this  first  glacier,  and  the 
presence  of  ice  floating  in  tlie  waters  around  us,  the 
conversation  of  all  on  l)oard  took  a  scientific  turn, 
and  facts,  fancies,  and  wild  theories  about  glacial 
origin  and  action  were  advanced  that  would  have 
struck  ixmic  to  any  body  of  geologists,  lieing  all 
laymen,  there  was  no  one  to  expound  the  mysteries 
and  ^peak  with  final  authority  on  any  of  these  frozen 
and  well-established  truths  ;  and  we  floundered  about 
in  a  sea  of  suppositions,  and  were  lost  in  a  labyrinth 
of  lame  conclusions. 

A  long  chain  of  snow-cajjped  mountains  slowly 
unrolled  as  the  ship  emerged  from  Wrangell  Nar- 
rows, more  glaciers  were  brought  to  view,  and  that 
strange  granite  monument,  the  "  Devil's  Thumb,"  as 
namerl  by  Commander  Meade,  signalled  us  from  a 
mountain  top. 

Farther  up,  in  Stephens  Passage,  flc^ating  ice  tells 
of  the  great  glaciers  in  Ilolkam  or  Soundoun  l^ay, 
and  bes'CH.:  the  one  great  Soundoun  glacier  flowing 
into  the  sea,  there  are  three  other  glaciers  hidden 
in  the  high-walled  fiords  that  open  from  the  bay. 
()ne  of  the  first  and  most  adventurous  visitors  to  the 
Soundoun  glacier  was  Cai)tain  J.  W  White,  of  the 
Revenue  Marine,  who  anchored  the  cutter  Liiicohi  in 
the  bay  in  i<S68.  Seeing  a  great  arch  or  tunnel  in  the 
front  of  the  glacier,  he  had  his  men  row  the  small 
boat  into  the  deej)  blue  grotto,  and  they  went  a  hun- 
dred feet  down  a  cry.stalline  corridor  whose  roof  was 
a  thousand  feet  thick.  The  colors,  he  said,  were  mar- 
vellous, and,  like  the  galleries  eut    in  the  Alpine  gla- 


TlIF  SITKAN  ARCIUPKLAGO. 


75 


K 


ciers,  showed  fresh  wonders  with  each  advance.  At 
the  furthest  point  the  adventurous  boatmen  poured 
out  libations  and  drank  to  the  s|>irits  of  the  ice  king- 
dom. In  1876  golfl  was  discovered,  and  th^  Soun- 
doun  pkicers  were  the  first  ones  worked  in  Akiska. 
Professor  Muir  visited  the  glacier  and  mines  of  Soun- 
tloun  Bay  in  i<S7'  ,  tnd  at  Shough,  a  cam])  in  a  valley 
at  the  head  (jf  the  inlet,  found  miners  at  work  with 
their  priniiiive  rockers  an<l  sluices.  In  i8<So  these 
mines  yielded  $10,000,  and  the  miners  believed  the 
l)ed  of  gold-bearing  gravel  inexhaustible.  The  dis- 
covery of  gold  at  Juneau  tlrew  the  most  of  them 
away,  and  the  Sountloun  placers  have  hardly  been 
heard  of  in  later  years. 

Winding  north,  through  a  broad  channel  with 
noble  mountain  ranges  on  either  side,  we  passed  the 
old  Hudson  Bay  Comj)any's  trading  post  of  Taku, 
and  at  mention  of  this  name  those  who  believe  in  the 
Asiatic  origin  of  the  Alaska  Indians  cried  out  in 
delighted  surpri.-j  :  "There  is  a  Chmese  city  of  the 
same  name  and  spelled  in  the  same  way  as  this  — 
Taku." 

Reaching  the  mouth  of  Taku  Inlet,  into  which  the 
Taku  River  empties,  the  floating  ice  gave  evidence  of 
the  great  glaciers  that  lie  within ;  and,  following  up 
this  fiord  for  about  fifteen  miles  to  a  great  basin,  we 
came  suddenly  in  sight  of  three  glaciers.  One  sloped 
down  a  steep  and  rather  narrow  ravine,  :'nd  its  front 
was  hidden  by  another  turn  in  the  overla[)ping  hills. 
The  second  one  pushed  down  between  two  higli 
mountains,  and,  resting  its  tongue  on  the  water, 
dropped  off  the  icebergs  and  cakes  that  cov-ercd 
the  surface  of  the  dull,  gray-green  water.     The  front 


I 


n 


HOUTIIKHN   A  LA  SKA. 


of  this  icy  cliff  stretched  entirely  across  the  half-mile 
gap  between  the  mountains,  and  its  face  rose  a  hun- 
dred and  two  hunched  feet  irom  the  water,  every  foot 
of  it  seamed,  ja;4ged,  and  rent  with  _i;reat  fissures,  in 
widch  the  palest  [)risinatic  hues  were  Hashinj^.  As 
the  tide  fell,  lar^i;e  pieces  fell  from  tins  from,  and  ava- 
lanches of  ice-fragments  crashed  down  into  I  he  sea  and 
raised  waves  thai  rocked  our  sliip  and  set  the  ice- 
floes i;rin(iin^^  toL;ether.  Oi}  the  other  point  of  the 
crescent  of  this  hay  there  lay  tlie  IarL;est  _i;lacier,  an 
ice-fiehl  that  swept  down  fiom  two  mountain  gorges, 
and,  sj>rea(Hng  out  iu  fcUi  sha[)e,  descended  in  a  long 
sloj)e  to  a  moraine  of  sand,  pebbles,  aiul  boulders. 
Across  its  rolbng  fi-ont  tliis  glacier  measured  at  least 
three  miles,  and  the  Kav,  level  moraine  was  one  mile 
in  width.  TIk-  .noraine's  slope  was  so  gradual  that 
when  the  small  boats  were  lowered  and  we  started 
for  shore,  thev  grounded  one  hundred  leet  from  the 
water-mark  and  there  stuck  until  the  passengers  were 
taken  off  one  by  one  in  the  lightest  boat,  and  then 
carried  over  the  last  twenty  feet  of  water  in  the 
sailors'  arms.  It  was  a  time  for  old  clothes,  to  begin 
with,  and  everyone  wore  their  woist  when  they 
started  off ;  but  at  the  finish,  when  the  same  set 
waded  through  a  tpiarter  of  a  mile  of  sand  and  min- 
eral mud  left  exposed  by  the  falling  tide,  and  were 
dumped  into  the  boats  by  the  sailors,  a  near  i-elative 
woidd  not  have  owned  one  of  us.  The  landing  i  f  the 
glacier  i)ilgrims  was  a  scene  worthy  of  the  nii^blest 
caricaturist,  and  sym])athy  welled  u])  for  the  j^oor 
officers  and  sailors  who  shouldered  stout  men  and 
women  antl  struggled  ashore  through  sinking  nnul 
and  water.     The  burly  captain  jiicketl  out   the  slight- 


Till-:   ,s//7v-.LV    Mlt'im'F.LAt.i). 


11 


est  youn<;  girl  aiul  carried  her  ashore  like  a  doll ;  hut 
the  second  officer,  deceived  by  the  hollow  eyes  of  one 
tall  woman,  lifted  her  up  ^^llantl),  floundered  for  a 
while  in  the  nuui  and  the  awtul  surprise  of  her  weight, 
and  then  Ix-an-r  and  burden  took  a  headlong  plunge. 
The  newly-manicd  man  cai'ried  his  bride  oil  on  his 
back,  and  had  that  novel  incident  to  ])ut  down  in  the 
voluminous  journal  of  the  hon(.:ymoon  kept  by  the 
yt>ung  coui)le. 

We  trailed  along  in  lilcs,  like  so  many  ants,  across 
the  sandy  moraine,  sinking  in  the  soft  "mountnin 
meal,"  stumbhng  over  acres  of  smooth  rocks  and 
pebbles,  and  jum[)ing  shallow  streams  that  wandcrinj 
down  from  the  melting  ice.  I'atches  of  epilobium 
crimsoned  the  ground  with.  r;ink  blossoms  near  the 
base  of  the  glacier,  [ind  at  list  we  began  ascending 
the  dull,  dirty,  gra)   ice  hills. 

There  was  a  wonderful  stillness  in  the  air,  and  tlic 
clear,  sunny,  blue  sk\' brooded  peiKcful'y  over  the  won- 
derful scene.  The  ciunching  of  the  footsteps  on  the 
rough  ice  could  be  heard  a  long  wav,  and  fiom  every 
crevice  came  the  ruml)le  and  roar  of  the  streams 
under  the  ice.  Rising  five  hundred  fert  or  moif  by 
a  gradual  incline  of  half  a  mile,  we  were  as  tar  from 
seeing  the  source  of  the  glacier  as  ever  ;  and  the  vast 
snow-fields  from  which  the  streams  of  ice  emerge  were 
still  hidden  by  the  si)urs  of  the  mountain  roimd  which 
they  poured.  .-'Xt  that  point  there  were  sf)me  deej) 
crevasses  in  the  ice,  and  leaning  over  we  looked  down 
into  the  bottomless  rifts.  The  young  Catholic  j)riest, 
forgetting  everything  in  the  ardor  of  the  moment  and 
the  ice-fever,  labored  like  a  giant,  hurling  vast  bould- 
ers into  the  depths,  thai  we  might  hear  the  repeated 


78 


tiO  urn  Kit  S   ALA  SKA. 


crashes  as  they  struck  from  side  to  side,  before  the 
splash  told  that  they  had  reached  the  subterranean 
river  that  roared  so  fiercely.  In  the  outer  sunshine 
the  ice  sparkled  like  broken  bits  of  silver,  but  in  the 
crevasses  the  colors  were  intensified  from  the  jxdest 
ice-green  to  a  deeper  and  deei)er  blue  that  was  lost 
in  shadowy  pur[)le  at  the  last  point.  The  travel- 
lers who  had  learned  their  glaciers  in  Switzerland  sat 
amazed  at  the  view  before  them,  and  owned  that  the 
<;lacicr  on  which  they  were  sitting  was  much  larger 
and  more  broken  than  the  Mir  dc  Glace,  while  noth- 
ing in  the  Alps  could  cc[urd  the  smaller  glacier  be- 
yond, that  lay  glittering  like  a  great  jewel-house  and 
dropping  bergs  of  beryl  and  sapphire  into  the  sea. 

Where  the  two  arms  of  the  glacier  united,  the  lines 
of  converging  ice-streams  were  marked  by  great  trains 
of  boulders  and  patches  of  dirt ;  and  fragments  of 
quartz  ami  granite,  and  iron-stained  rocks  were 
souvenirs  that  the  pilgrims  carried  off  by  the  pocket- 
ful. We  sat  on  rough  boulders  and  looked  down  into 
the  ice-ravines  on  every  side,  and  sighed  breathlessly 
in  the  ecstasy  of  joy.  An  earthly  and  material  soul 
roused  the  scorn  ot  the  young  Catholic  divine  by 
sitting  down  in  that  exalted  spot  to  eat  —  to  munch 
soda  crackers  from  a  brown-paper  bundle  —  while  the 
wreck  of  glaciers,  the  crash  of  icebergs,  the  grinding 
of  ice-floes,  and  world-building  were  going  on  about 
him. 

We  ran  down  the  glacier  slopes  hand  in  hand,  in 
long  lines  that  ''snapped  the  whip"  and  went  all- 
hands-round  on  the  more  level  places,  or  crept  in  cau- 
tious file  along  the  narrow  ridges  between  crevasses. 
We  drank  from  icy  rills  that  ran  in  channels  of  clear 


TJIK  S1TKA\   MiiUll'Kl.AdO. 


7U 


green  ice,  and  crossing  the  moniine,  wc  waded  throuj;h 
mud  ankle  deep  and  were  carried  to  the  l^oals.  Tlie 
receding  tide  liad  obliged  the  sailors  to  push  the  boats 
further  and  further  off,  and  when  one  frail  bark  was 
about  full  there  was  a  crash,  an  avalanche  oi  ice  went 
si)lashing  into  the  sea  from  the  smaller  glacier  up  the 
bay,  and  a  great  wave  curling  from  it  washed 
the  boat  back  and  left  it  grounded.  Men  without 
rubber  boots  were  then  so  well  soaked  and  so 
plastjred  with  glacier  mud  that  they  just  stepped 
over  the  boat's  side  and  helped  the  rubber-clad  sailors 
float  it  off.  The  lower  deck  and  the  engine-room 
were  hanging  full  and  strewn  with  muddy  boots  and 
drying  clothes  all  day,  and  the  stewards  were  heard  to 
wonder  **  what  great  lun  there  was  in  getting  all 
their  clothes  spoiled,  that  the  passengers  vni<:(\  take 
on  so  over  a  glacier." 

When  V^ancoLiver  went  to  the  head  of  Taku  Inlet  in 
1794  he  found  "frozen  mountains"  surrounding  it  on 
every  side,  and  his  boats  were  so  endangered  by  the 
floating  ice,  that  his  moi  gladly  luirried  away 
from  it.  Prospectors  have  had  their  camps  at  the 
mouth  of  the  river  at  the  head  of  the  basin,  and  have 
searched  the  bars  and  shores  of  Taku  River  for  miles 
across  the  mountain  wall.  Their  evidence  and  that 
of  the  fur  traders,  who  give  scant  notice  to  such 
things,  ])rove  the  Indian  traditions,  that  the  ice  is 
receding  rapidly,  and  that  the  ice  mountain  that  now 
sets  back  with  a  great  moraine  before  it,  came  down 
to  the  water's  c([g<:.  in  their  fathers'  days. 

That  day  on  the  Taku  glacier  will  live  forever  as 
one  of  the  rarest  and  r.-'st  perfect  enjoyment.  The 
grandest  objects  in  nchiix  were  before  us,  the  prime- 


i 


ri 


IMAGE  EVALUATION 
TEST  TARGET  (MT-3) 


// 


I 


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f/u 


fA 


1.0 


I.I 


1.25 


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40 


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1.6 


Photograpnic 

Sciences 
Corporation 


23  WEST  MA  N  STREET 

-VEB:  'f  ?.,  NY.  J4580 
[nt.)  872-4503 


A 


11 


l/x 


80 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


val  forces  that  mould  the  face  of  the  earth  vere  at 
work,  and  it  was  all  so  far  away  and  out  of  the  every- 
day world  that  we  might  have  been  walking  a  new 
planet,  fresh  fallen  from  the  Creator's  hand.  The 
lights  and  shadows  on  the  hills,  and  the  range  of 
colors,  were  superb, —  every  tiny  ice-cake  in  the  water 
showing  colors  as  rare  and  fleeting  as  the  shades  of 
an  opal,  while  the  gleaming  ice-cliff,  from  which  these 
jewels  dropped,  was  aglow  with  all  the  prismatic  lights 
and  tinted  in  lines  of  deepest  indigo  in  the  great 
caverns  and  rifts  of  its  front.  The  sunny,  sparkling 
air  was  most  exhilarating,  and  we  sat  on  the  after- 
deck  basking  in  the  golden  rays  of  the  afternoon  sun, 
and  looked  back  regretfully  as  the  glaciers  receded 
and  were  lost  to  sight  by  a  turn  in  the  fiord. 


THE  SlTKAy  AliCniPELAGO. 


81 


CHAITI'R    \'II. 

JUNEAU,    SILVER    liOW    HASIX,    AND    DOUGLASS     ISLAND 

MINES. 

TURNING  north  from  the  mouth  of  Taku  Inlet, 
antl  runnin<;  up  Gastineaux  Channel,  we  were 
between  the  steepest  mountain  walls  that  ve<.'etation 
could  cling  to,  and  down  all  those  verdant  precipices 
poured  foaming  cascades  from  the  snow-banks  on  the 
summits.  This  channel  between  the  mainland  shore 
.  and  Douglass  Island  is  less  than  a  mile  in  width,  and 
the  mountains  on  the  eastern  shore  rise  to  two 
thousand  feet  and  more  in  their  first  uplift  from  the 
water's  edge.  The  snowy  summits  of  the  ranges 
back  of  it  reach  twice  that  altitude,  and  are  the  same 
mountains  that  shelter  the  glariers  of  the  north 
shore  of  Taku  Inlet. 

All  of  this  Taku  region  is  rich  in  the  indications 
of  precious  minerals,  and  prospectors  have  explored 
miles  of  the  most  rugged  mountain  country  in  their 
search  for  float  and  gravel.  The  presence  of  gold 
along  the  shores  of  Taku  River  was  long  known, 
but  the  Taku  Indians,  who  guarded  the  mouth  of  the 
river  and  kept  the  monopoly  of  the  fur  trade  with  the 
interior  Indians,  were  known  to  be  hostile  and  kept 
prospectors  aloof.  Prof.  Muir  found  signs  of  gold 
in  every  stream  in  the  territory,  ground  by  and  swept 


ir 


88 


HOUTIIKltS   ALASKA. 


down  from  the  higher  ranges  by  the  vast  ice-sheet 
that  once  covered  this  region,  and  by  the  ghiciers 
that  are  still  at  work  in  all  the  fiords  and  ravines. 
He  believed  that  the  great  mineral  vein  extending 
uj)  the  coast  from  Mexico  to  liritish  Columbia  con- 
tinned  through  Alaska  and  into  Siberia.  With  Ikit- 
ish  Columbian  miners  producing  $1,000,000  and 
$2,000,000  each  year,  and  Siberia  yielding  its  annual 
$22,000,000,  Professor  Muir  was  certain  that  Alaska 
would  prove  to  be  one  of  the  rich  gold  fields  of  North 
Afnerica.  In  one  of  his  letters  to  the  San  Francisco 
Bulletin  in  1879,  he  gave  it  as  his  belief  that  the 
richest  quartz  leads  would  be  found  on  the  mainland 
shores  east  of  Sitka,  and  that  the  true  mineral  belt 
followed  the  trend  of  the  continental  shores.  A 
year  later  his  prophecy  was  verified,  and  the  present 
mining  town  of  Juneau,  a  hundred  miles  north  and 
east  of  Sitka  in  a  direct  line,  promises  soon  to  dis- 
tance the  capital  and  become  the  most  important 
town  in  tho  tcrritorv. 

The  town  of  Juneau  straggles  along  the  beach 
and  scatters  itself  after  a  broken,  rectangular  plan, 
up  a  ravine  that  o|)cns  to  the  water  front.  T-ying  at 
the  foot  of  a  vertical  mountain-wall,  with  slender 
cascades  rolling  like  silver  ribbons  from  the  clouds 
and  snow-banks  overhead,  and  sheltered  in  a  curve  of 
the  still  channel,  Juneau  has  the  most  picturesque 
situation  of  any  town  on  the  coast.  There  were 
about  fifty  houses  in  i<S84,  and  the  place  claimed  be- 
tween three  hundred  and  four  hundred  white  inhabi- 
tants, with  a  village  of  Taku  Indians  on  one  side  of 
the  town,  and  Auk  Indians  on  the  other.  The 
Northwest  Trading  Company  has  a  large   store   at 


THE  SITKAN  AHCUIPELAGO. 


88 


Juneau,  and  a  barber's  shop  and  the  si.i;n  of  "  Rus- 
sian Baths,  every  Saturday,  fifty  cents,"  shows  that 
the  luxuries  of  civilization  are  creeping  in. 

As  a  mining  camp,  this  settlement  dates  back  but  a 
few  years.  In  1879  the  Indians  gave  fine  quartz 
specimens  to  the  officers  of  the  U.  S.  S.  Jamestown, 
claiming  to  have  found  them  on  the  shores  of  Gasti- 
neaux  Channel.  In  the  following  summer  a  pros- 
pecting party  was  formed  at  Sitka,  and  left  there 
headed  by  Joseph  Juneau  and  Richard  Harris.  They 
camped  on  the  present  site  of  Juneau  on  Oct.  i,  1880, 
and  followed  up  the  largest  of  three  creeks  emptying 
into  the  channel  near  that  point.  Three  miles  back 
on  this  Gold  Creek  in  the  Silver  Bow  Basin,  they 
found  rich  placers  and  outcroj>ping  quartz  ledges. 
When  they  returned  to  Sitka  with  their  sacks  of 
specimens,  there  was  a  stampede  and  a  rush  for  the 
new  El  Dorado,  and  the  camp,  established  in  mid- 
winter, has  since  grown  into  a  town.  Harris  took 
up  a  town  site  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres, 
and  in  the  spring  of  1881  miners  from  British 
Columbia  and  from  Arizona  Hocked  to  the  new 
gold-fields. 

The  place  was  first  called  Pilsbury,  for  one  pros- 
pector; then  Fliptown,  as  a  miner's  joke  ;  next  Rock- 
well, for  the  officer  of  the  (J.  S.  S.  Jamestown,  who 
came  down  with  a  detachment  of  marines  to  keeji 
the  camp  in  order;  fourthly  it  was  named  Harri.s- 
burg,  and  fifthly  Juneau.  This  last  name  was  for- 
mally adopted  by  the  miners  at  a  meeting  held  in 
May,  1882,  and  in  the  same  conclave  resolutions 
were  passed  ordering  all  Chinamen  out  of  the  district, 
and  warning  the  race  to  stay  away ;  which  they  have 


84 


SOUTIIEUN  ALA6KA. 


(lone.  At  the  same  time  the  miners  perfected  an 
organization,  electeil  a  recorder,  and  adopted  a  code 
of  laws  which  should  be  enforced  until  the  United 
States  should  establish  civil  government  and  declare 
it  a  land  district.  Even  with  this  volunteer  attempt 
at  law  and  order,  the  ownership  of  mining  claims 
was  uncertain,  as  they  belonged  to  the  hrst  and  the 
strongest  ones  who  began  work  in  the  spring.  For 
want  of  a  civil  tribunal,  miners'  quarrels  were  settled 
by  fists,  shotguns,  or  an  appeal  to  the  man-of-war  at 
Sitka.  The  whole  town  site  and  the  Hasin  are  staked 
off  and  claimed  by  three  and  four  first  owners,  and 
lawsuits  are  impending  over  every  piece  of  mining 
property.  Without  surveys,  titles,  or  protection,  the 
Juneau  miners  have  done  little  more  than  the  ne- 
cessary assessment  work  each  year,  although  some 
of  the  placers  have  paid  richly.  With  things  in  such 
an  insecure  state,  capitalists  were  not  willing  to  ven- 
ture anything  in  the  development  of  these  mines,  and 
owners  did  little  boasting  of  the  richness  of  their 
lodes,  lest  more  miscreants  should  be  invited  to 
jump  their  claims.  The  newly  established  dist.'-ict 
court,  whose  clerk  is  i;v  officio  recorder  of  deeds, 
mortgages,  and  certificates  of  location  of  mining 
claims,  will  be  overwhelmed  with  mining  suits  at  its 
first  sessions,  and  every  claim  will  supply  one  or  more 
cases  for  trial. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  ascertain  the  exact  amounts 
produced  by  these  mines,  although  from  ten  to  fifty 
thousand  dollars  in  gold  is  sent  down  by  each  steamer 
during  the  summer  months.  To  avoid  the  heavy 
express  charges,  many  of  the  provident  miners  carry 
down  their  own  hard  earnings  in  the  fall,  and  buckskin 


THE  SITKAN  AltCUIPELAdO. 


85 


bags,  tin  cans,  and  bottles  of  gold  dust  are  among  the 
curios  put  in  the  purser's  safe.  As  far  as  known, 
5135,000  was  washed  from  the  placers  in  i88i, 
3250,000  in  i<S82,  and  about  $400,000  in  1883. 

After  the  first  season's  stir  Juneau  experienced  a 
slow  and  steady  growth,  antl  has  not  yet  set  up  its 
pretensions  to  a  "  boom."  There  is  a  calm  and  quiet 
to  the  town  that  disappoints  one  who  looks  for  the 
wild  and  untrammelled  scenes  of  an  incipient  Lead- 
ville.  The  roving  prospectors  and  the  improvident 
miners  gather  at  Juneau  when  the  frosts  and  snows 
of  winter  drive  them  from  the  basins  and  valleys  of 
the  mainland,  and  in  that  season  Juneau  comes  near- 
est to  wearing  the  air  of  a  mining  town  with  the  fever 
and  delirium  of  a  boom  about  to  come  on.  Tales  of 
fabulous  riches  are  then  current,  and  around  the  con- 
traband whiskey-bottle  prospectors  tell  of  finds  that 
put  Ormus  and  the  Ind,  Sierra  Nevada  and  Little 
Pittsburg  far  behind. 

The  first  time  that  I  visited  Juneau  it  was  getting 
a  large  instalment  of  its  annual  rainfall  of  nine  feet, 
and  it  was  only  by  glimpses  through  the  tattered 
edges  of  the  clouds  that  one  could  see  the  slopes 
of  the  steep,  green  mountains,  with  the  roaring  cas- 
cades waving  like  snowy  pennants  against  the  forest 
screen.  The  ground  was  soaketl  and  miiv,  antl  the 
least  step  from  the  gravelly  beach  or  the  plank  walks 
plunged  one  ankle-deep  in  the  black  mud.  Of  the  two 
beasts  of  burden  m  the  town,  the  horse  was  busy 
hauling  freight  from  the  wharf,  and  the  mule  struck 
a  melancholy  pose  beside  an  ancient  schooner  on  the 
beach  and  refused  to  move.  Depending  upon  such 
transportation,  travel  to  the  Basin  mines  was  rather 


m 


HOVraKliN  ALASKA. 


'^ 


limited,  ami  a  few  miners  and  Indians  descending  the 
steep  trail  from  the  forest,  like  Fra  Diavolo  in  the 
first  act,  quite  excited  the  fancy.  After  a  contest 
with  the  best  two  hundred  feet  of  the  three  miles  of 
the  steep  yet  miry  trail,  we  were  convinced  that  the 
mines  wouUl  not  pay  on  that  drizzly  afternoon.  With 
the  trees  drippinj;  around  us  and  little  rills  running 
down  on  every  side,  it  was  rather  paratloxical  to  have 
a  wayfarer  tell  us  that  the  miners  were  doing  very 
little  just  then,  for  want  of  water.  It  was  strange 
ent)ugh  in  a  country  of  perpetual  rain,  with  streams 
dropping  down  from  eternal  snows,  that  the  system 
of  reservoirs,  ditches,  and  flumes  slundd  be  incom- 
plete. A  sociable  miner,  with  his  hands  in  his 
pockets  as  far  as  his  elbows,  engaged  us  in  conver- 
sation on  a  street  corner,  and  we  surrounded  him 
with  a  cordon  of  dripping  uml)relkis  and  listened  to 
his  apologies  for  the  state  of  the  weather,  couched 
in  many  strange  iilioms. 

"We  haven't  any  Indian  agents,  or  constables,  so 
there's  never  any  trouble  between  us  peaceable  white 
men  and  the  natives,"  said  the  miner.  "There's  no 
caboose  antl  no  tax-collector;  and  as  fish  is  plenty, 
it  's  as  good  a  place  as  any  for  a  poor  miner.  Want 
of  whiskey  is  the  greatest  drawback  to  the  develop- 
ment of  this  country,  and  something  will  have  to  be 
done  about  it.  Congress  and  them  folks  in  Wash- 
ington don't  pay  much  attention  to  us,  but  we  had  an 
earthquake  a  while  ago,"  so  the  Lord  ain't  forgotten 
us,  if  the  government  has,"  said  the  friendly  miner, 
with  a  solemn  smile.  He  promised  to  bring  some 
quartz  specimens  to  the  ship  for  the  ladies ;  but  we 
never  saw  that  friend  again. 


THE  SITKAX  AHVlIU'ELAiiO. 


87 


The  mint  s  thus  failin;;  us  in  picturesquoness  and 
thrilliui^  incidents,  the  Indians  came  in  for  u  full 
share  of  attention.  One  vilkii^e  wanders  along  the 
beach  bel(nv  the  wharf,  and  the  other  settlement  is 
hidden  behind  a  knoll  at  the  other  side  of  the  town. 
In  the  latter,  Sitka  Jack  has  a  summer-house  as  well 
as  at  Fort  VVran^ell,  but,  instead  of  trndinj;  this 
potentate  at  home,  his  door  was  locked,  and  the 
neighbors  said  that  he  had  gone  up  to  Chilkat  for 
the  salmon  fishing.  On  one  of  the  largest  houses  in 
the  village  was  the  sign:  "Klow-kck,  Auke  Chief." 
Over  another  doorway  was  written  : 


"Jake  IS  a  ijood  Iwiv,  a  working  man, 
[■ruiul  (<t  till'  wliitus,  and  demands  protection." 


The  Indians  came  from  both  villages  and  huddled 
in  groups  on  the  wharf.  Nearly  all  of  them  were 
barefooted,  for  those  rich  enough  to  afford  shoes 
ti'ke  them  off  and  put  them  away  when  the  ground  is 
wet  or  muddy.  They  seemed  quite  unconscious  of 
the  weather,  and,  though  u^ishod,  were  wrapped  in 
blankets  and  in  many  cases  carried  umbrellas.  The 
women  and  children  tripped  down  in  their  bare 
feet,  and  sat  around  on  the  dripping  wharf  with  a 
recklessness  that  suggested  pneumonia,  consumption, 
rheumatism,  and  all  those  kindred  ills  from  which 
they  suffer  so  severely.  Nearly  all  the  women  had 
their  faces  blacked,  and  no  otie  can  imagine  anything 
more  frightful  and  sinister  on  a  melanch(>lv  dav  than 


88 


HOUTJIKliS  ALASKA. 


to  be  confronted  by  one  of  these  silent,  stealthy  fig- 
ures, with  tile  great  circles  (jt  the  vvliites  ol  the  eyes 
alone  visible  in  the  shadow  of  the  blanket.  A  dozen 
fictitious  reasons  are  given  f(;r  this  face-blacking. 
One  Indian  savs  that  tiic  widows  and  those  who  have 
suffered  great  sorrow  wear  the  black  in  token  thereof. 
Another  native  authority  makes  it  a  sign  of  happi- 
ness, while  occasionall)  a  giggling  dame  confesses 
that  it  is  done  to  preserve  the  complexion.  Ludi- 
crous as  this  may  seem  to  the  bleached  Caucasian 
and  the  ladies  of  rice-powdered  and  enamelled  coun- 
tenances, the  matrons  ol  high  fashion  and  the  swell 
damsels  of  the  Thlinket  tribes  never  make  a  canoe 
voyage  without  smearing  themselves  well  with  the 
black  dye,  that  they  get  from  a  certain  wikl  root  of 
the  woods,  or  with  a  paste  of  soot  and  seal  oil.  On 
sunny  and  windy  days  on  shore  they  protect  them- 
selves from  tan  and  sunburn  by  this  same  inky  coat- 
ing. On  feast  days  and  the  great  occasions,  when 
they  wash  off  the  black,  their  complexions  come  out 
as  fair  and  creamy  white  as  the  palest  of  their  Japa- 
nese cousins  across  the  water,  and  the  women  are 
then  seen  to  be  some  six  shades  lighter  than  the  tan- 
colored  and  coffee-colored  lords  of  their  tribe.  The 
specimen  women  at  Juneau  wore  a  thin  calico  dress 
and  a  thick  blue  blanket.  FIcr  feet  were  bare,  but 
she  was  compensated  for  that  loss  of  gear  by  the 
turkey-red  parasol  that  she  poised  over  her  head  with 
all  the  complacency  of  a  Mount  Desert  belle.  She 
had  blacked  her  face  to  the  edge  of  her  eyelids  and 
the  roots  of  her  hair ;  she  wore  the  full  parure  of 
silver  nose-ring,  lip-ring,  and  ear-rings,  with  five 
silver  bracelets  on  each  wrist,  ami  fifteen  rings  orna- 


Tllh:   silh'.W  AUf'lIlPKI.AdO. 


89 


minting  her  bronze  fnigers;  and  a  more  thrroiif^hly 
proud  antl  sclt-satisticd  creature  never  arrayed  licrself 
according  to  the  behests  of  high  fashion.  Tiie  chil- 
(h"en  {)attered  around  barefooted  and  wearing  but  a 
single  short  garment,  altliough  the  chi)-  was  as  cold 
and  drear  as  ii\  our  November.  Not  one  of  these 
|)oor  youngsters  even  ventured  on  the  croopy  cough, 
tliat  belongs  to  the  civilized  child  tliat  has  onlv  put 
his  head  out  of  tloor^  in  sucli  weather.  One  can 
easily  believe  the  records  and  the  statements  as  to 
the  terrible  death  r.ite  among  these  peoj)le,  and 
marvel  that  any  ever  live  beyond  their  infancy.  So 
few  old  people  are  seen  among  them  as  to  continually 
cause  remark,  but  by  their  Spartan  system  only  the 
strongest  can  possibly  survive  the  exposure  and  iiard- 
ships  of  such  a  life.  Consumption  is  the  common 
ailment  and  carries  them  away  in  numbers,  yet  they 
have  no  medicines  or  remedies  of  their  own,  trust 
only  to  the  mcantations  and  hocus-pocus  of  their 
medicine-men,  and  take  not  the  slightest  care  to 
protect  themselves  from  e.\|)osure.  (j.eat  epidemics 
have  swept  these  islands  at  times,  and  forty  years  ago 
the  scourge  of  smallpox  carried  off  iialf  the  natives 
of  Alaska.  The  tribes  ne\cr  regained  their  num- 
bers after  that  terrible  devastation,  and  since  then 
black  measles  and  other  diseases  have  so  reduced 
their  people  that  another  fifty  years  may  see  these 
tribes  e\tinct.  The  smoke  of  their  dwellings  and 
the  glare  from  the  snow  in  winter  increases  diseases 
of  the  eye,  and  most  interesting  cases  for  an  oculist 
are  presented  in  every  group. 

Indian  women  crouched  on  the  wharf  with  their 
wares  spread  before  them,  or  wandered  like  shadows 


90 


SOVTUEltS   ALASKA. 


about  the  ship's  deck,  offering  l)askcts  and  mats 
woven  of  the  tine  threads  of  the  inner  bark  and  roots 
of  the  cedar,  and  extentUng  arms  covered  with  silver 
bracelets  to  the  envious  <;aze  of  their  white  sisters. 
There  was  no  savage  modesty  or  .simi)licity  about  the 
prices  asked,  and  their  first  demands  were  generally 
twice  what  the  articles  were  worth.  They  are  keen 
traders  iind  sharp  at  bargaining,  and  no  white  man 


III.lNKri'    HASKKI. 


outwits  these  natives.  Conversation  was  carried 
t)n  with  them  in  the  Chinook  jargon,  the  language 
comi)0v;n(le(l  by  Hudson  Hay  Company  traders  from 
French,  I'jiglish,  Russian,  and  the  dialect  of  the 
Chinook  tribe  once  living  at  the  mouth  of  the  Colum- 
bia River.  The  Indians  from  California  to  the  Arctic 
Ocean  understand  more  or  less  of  this  jargon,  and  in 
Oregon  and  Washington  Territory  Chinook  is  a  most 
necessary  accomplishment. 

At  the  traders'   stores    in   town   we   found  whole 


THJC  SlTKAy   AlH  lUrELAUO. 


museums  of  Indian  curios,  and  revelled  in  the  oddi- 
ties and  strange  art-works  of  the  people,  'llie  round 
i)a^kets  of  .>pht  eeilar,  woven  stt  tij;htl)  as  to  be  water- 
proof, aiul  ornamented  in  rude  j;eometrieal  ilesi;;ns 
in  bright  colors,  are  the  tirst  choice  for  souvenirs 
among  tourists.  Afi  jr  that  the  carvings,  the  minia- 
ture totems  and  canoes,  the  grotesque  masks  aiul 
dance  rattles,  take  the  eve.  rhcre  were,  too,  tiie  fine 
ancestral  spoons  matle  Ironi  the  horns  of  mountain 
g(Xit  and  musk  ox,  and  fini.shed  with  handles  carved 
in  full  and  high  relief,  and  inlaid  with  l-'ls  ol  abalone- 
shell,  bears'  teeth,  and  lucky  .>tones  froiv,  the  head  of 
the  cotlhsh.  Of  furs  and  skins  everv'  sto'e  held  a 
great  su|)ply,  and  when  bearskins  ;i.d  s(iuir'el  robes 
had  n(;  effect  the  traoers  would  bring  oiii-  their  trea- 
sures ol  otter,  fox,  and  seal,  and  .show  ihe  bales  of  furs 
ihat  awaiteil  transjiortation  to  the  south.  A  robe  of 
gray  squirrel  two  yards  stjuare  was  bought  for  one  dol- 
lar and  fifty  cents,  and  sealskiris  at  eight  dollars,  .silver- 
fox  skins  for  twentv-hve  dollai  s,  and  sea-otter  skins  for 
one  bundled  dollars,  continued  the  ascending  scale  of 
prices.  The  real  entertainment  of  the  day  came  after 
we  had  bouiiht  our  baskets  and  spoons  and  carviiiL's 
at  the  traders'  stores,  and  were  enjoving  a  (^-w  dry 
hours  in  the  cabin.  'I'hen  the  Indian  women  came 
tapping  at  the  windows  with  theii-  i)racelets.  and  the 
keen  spirit  of  the  trade  having  i)ossesse(.l  us,  we  made 
wonderful  bargains  with  the  i  denting  savages.  A  lap 
on  the  window,  and  the  one  word  "  Hracelet  !  "  or  the 
Chinook  "  Klickivilly,'  would  bring  all  the  ladies  to 
their  feet,  and  the  mechanical  "  how  much "  that 
followed  became  so  automatic  during  the  day,  that 
when  the  porter  rapped  at  night  for  lights  to  be  put 


i 


9t 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


out,  he  was  greeted  with  a  "how  much"  in  response. 
For  each  bracelet  the  Indians  wailed  out  a  demand 
for  "mox  tolla^  two  lollars  in  our  tongue.  They 
finally  came  down  to  "•  let  tolla  sitciiuiy  or  one  dollar 
and  fifty  cents,  and  rapidly  disposed  of  their  trea- 
sures. Some  lucky  j)urchasers  happened  upon  the 
unredeemed  pledges  in  the  pawn  branch  of  a  jolly 
old  trader's  store,  and  for  "  sitcuin  toilih'  oi*  fifty 
cents,  walked  off  with  flat  silver  bracelets  a  quarter 
of  an  inch  wide,  carved  in  rude  ticsigns  of  leaves  and 
scrolls. 

Even  Indian  societv  is  dull  in  the  summer  time,  as 
they  all  go  off  in  great  parties  to  catch  their  winter 
supplies  of  fish.  While  the  salmon  are  running  no 
Indian  wants  to  stay  at  home  in  the  village,  but  no 
angler  can  imagine  that  they  need  go  far  to  drop  the 
line,  when  one  copper-colored  Izaak  dropped  his  hali- 
but hook  off  the  Juneau  wharf  and  pulled  up  a  fish 
weighing  nine  hundred  pounds.  Being  clubbed  on 
the  head  and  hauled  up  with  much  help,  the  mon- 
ster halibut  was  sold  for  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents, 
which  statement  completes  about  as  remarkable  a 
fish  story  as  one  dares  to  tell,  even  at  this  distance. 

Halibut  of  ninety  and  one  hundred  pounds  have 
been  caught  over  the  ship's  side  in  these  channels, 
and  Captain  Cook  tells  of  one  weighing  five  hundred 
pounds,  and  other  navigators  of  those  weighing  nine 
hundred  pounds.  Halibut  is  a  staff  of  life  to  tlie 
Indians,  and  their  menu  always  comprises  it.  They 
catch  the  halibut  with  elaborately-carved  wooden 
hooks  made  of  red  cedar  or  the  heart  of  spruce  roots, 
fastened  to  lines  of  twisted  cedar  bark,  or  braided 
seaweed.      Clubs  carved  with  the  fisherman's  totem 


TflK  SITKAN  ARCH  IP  KL  AGO. 


98 


and  other  designs  are  used  to  kill  them  with  when 
drawn  up  to  the  side  of  the  canoe.  At  many  of  the 
fisheries  a  great  deal  of  halibut  is  salted  and  packed 
before  the  salmon  season  begins,  and  halibut  fins  are 
choice  morsels  that  command  a  higher  price  by  the 
barrel  than  salmon  bellies. 

The  second  time  that  I  saw  Juneau  it  was  like 
another  place  in  the  last  golden  glow  of  the  afternoon 
sun.  They  had  been  having  clear  weather  for  weeks, 
and  under  a  radiant  blue  sky  Juneau  was  the  most 
charming  little  mountain  nook  and  seashort;  village 
one  could  look  for.'  The  whole  summit  ranges  of  the 
mountains  on  the  Juneau  sliore  and  on  the  island 
were  visible,  and  at  a  distance  the  little  white  houses 
of  the  town  looked  like  bits  of  the  snowbanks,  that 
had  slid  three  thousand  feet  down  the  tntck  of  the 
cascades  to  the  beach.  We  determined  on  an  early 
start  for  the  mines  the  next  morning,  an.xious  to 
see  the  places  that  bafHed  the  pilgrirns  the  first  time. 

The  site  of  the  mining  camp  in  the  Silver  Bow 
Basin  is  even  more  picturesque,  and  the  trail  from 
Juneau  leads  straight  up  the  mountain  side,  then 
down  to  a  second  valley,  and  along  the  wild  cafion 
of  Gold  Creek  and  into  the  basin  of  the  vSilver  l^ow. 
All  the  way  it  leads  through  dense  forests  and  luxu- 
riant bottom  land,  where  the  immense  pine-trees,  the 
thickets  of  ferns  and  devil's  club,  and  the  rank  under- 
growth of  bushes  and  grasses,  continuallv  excite  one's 
wonder.  We  rose  at  half  past  five  in  order  to  go 
out  to  the  basin  and  get  back  before  the  ship  sailed 
at  ten  o  clock,  and  in  the  fresh,  dewy  air  and  the  pure 
light  of  the  early  morning  it  was  a  walk  through  an 
enchanted  forest  and  a  happy  valley.  The  trail  wound 


>i 


04 


SOUrUEHN  ALASKA. 


up  to  fifteen  hundred  feet,  dropped  by  long  jumps 
and  slides  to  the  first  level  of  the  cation  and  reached 
fifteen  hundred  feet  above  the  sea  again  in  the  Hasin. 
The  devil's  club,  a  tall,  thorny  plant  with  leaves 
twelve  and  more  inches  across,  grew  in  impassable 
clumps  in  the  woods,  and  the  sunlight  falling  on  these 
large  leaves  gave  a  tropical  look  to  the  forest.  The 
devil's  club  is  the  prospectors'  dread,  and  the  thorny 
sticks  used  to  do  to  switch  witches  with  in  the  Indians' 
old  uncivilized  days.  licJiiiiopaiiax  horrida  is  the 
botanist's  awful  name  for  it,  and  that  alone  is  caution 
enough  for  one  to  avoid  it  There  were  thickets  of 
thimbleberry  bushes  covered  with  large,  creamy- 
white  blossoms  ;  and  clusters  of  white  ranunculus, 
white  columbine,  blue  geranium,  and  yellow  monkey 
flowers  grew  in  i)atches  and  dyed  the  ground  with 
their  massed  colors.  The  ferns  were  everywhere, 
and  under  bushes  and  beside  fallen  logs,  delicate 
maidenhair  ferns,  with  fine  ebony  items,  were  gath- 
ered by  the  handful.  \Vc  met  a  few  well-dressed 
Indians  hurrying  to  town,  and  an  occasional  miner;, 
who  gave  us  a  cheery  greeting. 

Blue  jays  flitted  down  the  path  before  us,  flashing 
their  beautiful  wings  in  the  sunshine  ;  and  v\'here  the 
canon  grew  steeper  and  narrower.  Gold  Creek  roared 
like  a  muddy  Niagara.  High  up  in  a  ravine  a  melt- 
ing snowbank  disclosed  a  great  cave  underneath,  and 
its  edges  were  fringed  with  waving  grasses  and  flow- 
ers.  Kvcn  hvflraulic  mining  cannot  scar  and  dis- 
figure this  countrv,  where  a  mantle  of  green  clothes 
every  bare  patch  in  a  second  season,  and  mosses  and 
lichens  cover  the  stores  and  boulders.  The  moss  or 
sphagnum,  that  covers   the   ground,   is  as  great  an 


THE  SlTKAy   ARCmVKLAiiO. 


95 


obstacle  to  the  prospectors'  search  as  the  thickets  of 
"devil's  club."  A  campfire  built  on  this  moss 
gradually  burns  and  sinks  through,  and  the  miner, 
returning  to  his  open  fire,  often  finds  it  lying  deep 
in  a  well-hole  that  it  has  made  for  itself.  In  view  of 
the  obstacles  encountered,  the  tliscovery  of  these 
mining  regions  is  most  remarkable,  and  is  the  great- 
est monument  to  the  prospectors'  zeal. 

We  passed  picturesque  little  log  cabins  and  crossed 
the  debris  of  hydraulic  mines,  wntchetl  the  men  in  a 
narrow  gulch  cleaning  up  their  sluices,  and  going 
around  the  corner  of  Snowslide  (nilch,  just  this  side  of 
Specimen  Gulch,  we  met  Mr.  H.  and  his  dog.  Down 
we  all  sat,  dog  included,  and  indulged  in  the  light  and 
dry  repast  that  v.-e  carried  in  our  pockets.  ]\Ir.  H.  was 
a  typical  and  ideal  miner,  and  in  his  high  boots,  can- 
vas trousers,  flannel  shirt,  big  felt  hat,  and  heavy 
gold  watch  chain,  made  exactly  the  figure  for  the 
landscape,  as  he  rested  on  a  big  boulder  beside  the 
roaring  creek.  We  started  to  tell  him  the  great 
news  that  Alaska  at  last  had  a  governor  and  a  gov- 
ernment, and,  bethinking  ourselves  of  the  little  side 
incitient  of  Presidential  nominations,  began  to  tell  him 
about  them.  He  manifested  so  little  excitement  over 
Blaine  and  Logan  that  we  asked  if  his  seven  years 
without  seeing  the  polls  had  made  him  so  indifferent. 

"  Oh  !  Lord  no  ;  I  'm  a  Democrat  though,  I  guess, 
ma'am,"  said  Mr.  IV,  apologetically. 

"Then  we'll  never  tell  you  who  they  have  nomi- 
nated if  you  are  on  that  side,"  said  a  Republican, 
firndy,  and  Mr.  R's  Homeric  laugh  made  that  moun- 
tain glen  ring  before  he  was  enlightened  as  to  Cleve- 
land and  Hendricks. 


■    "     1 


y(i 


.so  UTIJEUN   ALA  SKA. 


Our  miner  told  us  of  a  piece  of  quartz  that  he  had 
found  the  day  before,  that  looked  "as  if  the  gold  had 
been  poured  on  hot  and  had  spattered  all  over  it," 
and  then  we  had  to  part  with  him  and  hurry  on  in 
different  ways. 

Silver  Bow  Basin  is  a  place  to  deli^jjht  an  resthetic 
miner  with  in  the  way  of  landsca})e,  and  any  one  with 
a  soul  in  him  would  surely  appreciate  that  little  round 
valley  sunk  deep  in  the  heart  of  great  mountains, 
with  snow-caps  on  every  horizon  line,  a  glacier  slip- 
ping from  a  great  ravine,  and  waterfalls  tumbling 
noisily  down  the  slopes.  A  little  cluster  of  cabins  is 
set  in  the  middle  of  this  Basin,  and  tiny  cabins,  dump 
piles,  and  lines  of  flumes  can  be  seen  on  the  sides  of 
the  steep  mountains.  The  camp  had  fallen  away  in 
numbers  since  the  precetling  year,  and  the  mining 
community  dwindled  from  two  hundred  to  less  than 
one  hundred  workers.  As  the  placers  showed  signs 
of  exhaustion,  the  roving  adventurers  had  lert,  and  the 
most  of  those  living  in  the  basin  were  chiefly  occupied 
in  holding  down  their  quartz  claims  until  the  reign  of 
law  and  the  rush  of  capitalists  should  begin.  Placer 
claims  that  had  yielded  'hirty  dollars  and  fifty  dollars 
a  day  to  the  man  were  abandoned,  as  the  debris  from 
the  old  glaciers  and  land-slides  came  to  an  end. 
Across  the  range  in  Dix  Bow  Basin  the  same  condi- 
tions existed.  Returning  on  the  trail,  we  met  a  few 
miners  going  back  to  their  cabins  and  claims,  and 
one  sociable  fellow  stopped  for  a  time  to  talk  to  us. 
He  complimented  the  small  party  on  our  energy  in 
taking  that  early  stroll,  and  in  the  most  regretful 
way  apologized  for  the  roughness  and  wildness  of  the 
very  surroundings  with  which  we  were  so  enraptured. 


n 


i 


} 


■: 


THE  SITKA y  Alit'UIPELAGO. 


97 


A  jolly  old  fellow  with  a  shrewd  twinkle  in  his  eye 
came  up  the  trail  swinging  his  coat  gayly,  and,  jjlant- 
ing  himself  in  the  pathway,  took  off  his  hat  with  a 
fine  flourish  and  said  to  me,  "  Madam,  I  was  told  to 
watch  out  for  you  on  this  road,  and  to  look  you 
squarely  in  the  eye  and  tell  you  to  hurry  back  to  the 
ship  or  you  would  be  left."  There  was  a  shout  all 
round  at  this  unmistakable  message  of  the  skipper, 
and  the  gay  miner  enjoyed  it  most  of  all.  Timing 
ourselves  by  our  watches,  we  lingered  long  on  the 
last  mile,  sitting  on  a  log  in  the  cool  shade  of  the 
forest,  where  the  trail  almost  overhung  the  little 
town.  We  could  watch  the  peoi:)le  walking  in  the 
streets  beneath,  and  in  the  still,  slumbering  sunshine 
almost  catch  the  hum  of  their  voices,  Pistol-shots 
raised  crashing  echoes  between  the  high  mountain 
walls,  and  set  all  the  big  ravens  to  croaking  in  hoarse 
concert. 

On  the  east  shore  of  Douglass  Island,  opposite 
Juneau,  the  grouj)  of  Indian  huts  and  canoes  on  the 
beach,  and  the  skeleton  of  a  fiume  striking  across  a 
gorge  and  down  to  the  water,  tell  of  the  mining 
camp  there.  Running  across  the  narrow  channel, 
the  ship  anchored  off  the  Treadwell  mine,  on  Doug- 
lass Island,  and  while  the  miners'  supplies  were  being 
put  in  the  lighter,  we  all  went  ashore  and  climbed  the 
steep  and  picturesque  trail  to  the  mill.  The  super- 
intendent took  his  lantern  and  marshalled  the  file 
into  the  tunnel  to  see  the  air-drill  at  work,  and 
then  we  all  filed  out  again.  The  Treadwell  is  one  of 
the  remarkable  mines  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  said 
to  be  one  of  the  largest  quartz  ledges  in  the  world. 
The   vein  is   over  four  hundred  feet  wide,  cropping 


98 


sourifEny  Alaska. 


out  on  the  surface  ami  crossed  by  three  tunnels.  The 
ore  is  not  hi<;h  grade,  !)ut  is  easily  mined  and  milled, 
and  the  supply  is  inexhaustible.  The  owners  are 
Messrs.  Treadwell,  Frye,  Freeborn,  and  Hill,  of  San 
Francisco,  and  Senator  J.  I*.  Jones  of  Nevada.  So 
far  only  a  small  15-stamp  mill  has  been  at  work  on 
the  ore,  but  the  owners  have  decided  to  eiect  a 
120-stamp  mill  this  year  and  develop  the  jiroperty 
systematically  The  progress  of  the  Treadwell  mine 
has  been  carefully  watched  by  rnniers  and  capitalists, 
and  its  success  has  done  much  to  encourage  others  to 
hold  on  to  their  properties  in  the  face  of  all  the  dis- 
couragements they  have  had  to  undergo  through  gov- 
ernment neglect. 

The  Bear  Ledge,  owned  by  Captain  Carroll  and 
his  partners,  adjoins  the  Treadwell  or  Paris  claim, 
and  is  a  continuation  of  the  same  rich  vein  ;  and  from 
the  richness  and  extent  of  these  and  other  mines,  it 
is  believed  that  a  large  town  w\\\  eventually  spring  up 
on  the  island.  A  town-site  was  located  and  called 
Cooperstown,  in  i8(Si,  soon  after  the  discovery  of 
gold  on  the  island,  but  so  far  only  the  tents  of  i)lacer 
miners  have  marked  it.  For  two  seasons  lawless 
bodies  of  men  worked  the  placers  on  the  surface  of 
the  Treadwell  lode,  and,  as  there  was  no  power  to 
appeal  to,  the  Treadwell  company  were  forced  to  en- 
dure it.  During  the  summer  of  1883,  over  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars  was  taken  from  the  surface  of 
the  ledge  in  this  way.  The  miners  pounded  up  the 
rich,  decomposed  quartz  in  hand-mortars,  and  as  it 
was  impossible  to  extract  all  the  gold  by  the  rude 
process  employed,  they  dumped  over  into  the  chan- 
nel richer  quartz,  in  many  instances,  than  had  been 


..JK^VM.T.^rVTW^I&'T-.llX:.' 


TIIK  SITKAN   AHClIlPKLAdO. 


m 


worked  in  the  Treidwell  mill.  The  deposit  of  decom- 
posed quartz  on  the  top  of  the  Icd^e  was  in  some 
places  ten  feet  deep,  and  in  workin;]^  it  the  squatters 
took  the  water  of  the  I'aris,  or  Hayes  Creek,  and  shut 
off  the  mill  supply  entirely.  There  was  a  sharp 
contest  l)etween  the  mill-owners  and  the  hydraulic 
miners,  and  the  man-of-war  at  Sitka  had  to  he  sent 
for  before  the  matter  was  adjusted.  They  pled^^ed 
themselves,  "until  such  time  as  they  should  have  civil 
law,"  to  let  the  mill  have  the  use  of  the  water  for 
twelve  hours  and  the  miners  for  the  other  twelve 
hours  of  each  twenty-four,  and  the  squatters  were  not 
to  blast  the  lode,  but  only  wash  the  surface  ground. 

An  island  gold  field  is  a  rarity  in  mining  annals, 
but  all  Douglass  Island  is  said  to  be  seamed  with 
quartz  lodes,  and  it  is  ridged  with  high  mountains 
from  end  to  end  of  its  twenty-mile  boundaries.  It 
was  eighty-seven  years  after  Vancouver's  surveys  be- 
fore the  prospectors  found  the  gold  on  its  shores,  but 
the  miners  have  retained  the  old  nomenclature,  and 
the  island  is  still  Douglass  Island,  as  Vancouver 
named  it  in  honor  of  his  friend,  the  Bishop  of  Salis- 
bury. 


!*f;' 


•  i 

i    ' 


100 


t^OVniKliy  ALASKA. 


CHArTKk   VIII. 


THE    CM  ILK  AT    COUNTKV 


JUNKAU  is  far  cnou£jh  north  to  satisfy  any  rea- 
sonable summer  ambition,  and  with  its  latitude 
of  58°  16'  N.,  the  young  mining  town  and  future 
metropolis  is  but  little  above  the  line  of  Glasgow, 
Edinburgh,  Copenhagen,  and  Moscow.  The  deep 
waters  of  Gastineaux  Channel  are  obstructed  by 
ledges  just  north  of  Juneau,  and  the  eighteen  feet 
fall  of  the  regular  tides  leaves  islands  and  reefs  visi- 
ble in  mid-channel.  For  this  reason  the  ship  had 
to  return  on  its  course,  and  round  Douglass  Island, 
before  it  could  continue  further  north,  and  when  that 
island  of  solid  gold  quartz  was  left  behind,  the  vessel 
entered  a  maze  of  smaller  islands  and  threaded  its 
way  into  the  grand  reaches  of  Lynn  Canal.  Van- 
couver named  this  arm  of  the  sea  for  the  town  of 
Lynn,  in  Norfolk,  I'^ngland,  the  place  of  his  nativity, 
and  his  explorers  began  the  song  of  prai-j  that  is 
chanted  by  ^very  summer  traveller  who  follows  their 
course  up  the  high-walled,  glacier-bound  fiord.  The 
White  Mountains  present  bold  barriers  on  the  west, 
and  along  the  eastern  shores  the  great  continental 
range  fronts  abruptly  on  the  water.  Each  point  or 
peak  passed  brought  another  glacier  into  view,  nine- 


! 


1 


t 


THE  SITKAN   AltiUlPELAUO. 


101 


vl 


4 


teen  glaciers  in  all  being  visible  on  the  way  up  the 
canal.  The  great  Auk  glacier  was  first  seen,  and 
then  the  Eagle  glacier,  toppling  over  a  })rccipice 
three  thousand  feet  in  air,  their  frozen  crests  and 
fronts  turning  i)innacles  of  silver  and  azure  to  the 
radiant  sun. 

Not  even  "  the  blue  Canary  Isles  "  could  have  of- 
fered a  more  "glorious  summer  day"  than  tlie  one 
that  we  enjoyed  while  tlie  /</ii//o  steamed  straight 
up  Lynn  Canal,  headed  for  the  north  pole.  The  sun 
shone  so  warmly  on  deck  that  we  laid  aside  wraps,  and 
sat  under  the  grateful  shade  of  an  umbrella.  There 
was  a  sj)arkle  and  freshness  to  the  air,  and  under  an 
ecstatic  blue  sky  fleecy  white  clouds  drifted  about  the 
mountain  summits  and  mingled  their  vapory  outlines 
with  the  fields  of  snow.  We  revelled  in  the  beauties 
of  the  scenes,  and  appreciated  at  the  moment  tiiat 
this  passage  leading  to  the  Chilkat  counti)-  is  ijerhaj)s 
the  finest  fiord  of  the  coast.  Lynn  Canal  siumbered 
as  a  sapphire  sea  between  its  iiigh  mountain  walls, 
with  scarcely  a  ripple  on  its  surface.  The  blue  ex- 
panse was  streaked  with  a  greenish  gray  where  the 
turbid  streams  poured  in  from  the  melting  glaciers, 
and  was  marked  with  a  distinct  line  where  the  azure 
water  changed  to  green,  and  then  it  faded  away  into 
gray  again,  where  the  fresh  waters  of  the  Chilkat 
River  flowed  in. 

At  the  head  of  Lynn  Canal  a  long  pomt  juts  out 
into  the  current,  with  the  Chilkat  Inlet  opening  at 
the  left,  and  the  Chilkoot  Inlet  at  the  right.  Opposite 
this  tongue  of  land  on  the  Chilkat  side  is  the  great 
Davidson  glacier,  sweeping  down  a  gorge  between 
two  mountains,  and  spreading  out  like  an  opened  fan. 


^W 


H 


10-J 


HorriiKiiy  Alaska. 


I! 


'I'ht.'  glacier  is  tincL-  miles  across  its  front  and  twelve 
iuiiidred  teet  hi^l),  where  it  slopes  to  reach  tlie  level 
ground,  and  it  is  separated  troni  the  waters  of  the 
inlet  by  a  terminal  moraine  covered  with  a  thick, 
forest  of  pines.  The  symmetry  of  its  outlines  and 
the  grand  slope  ol  its  broken  surface  are  most  im- 
pressive, and  this  mighty  torrent,  arrested  in  its 
sweej),  shows  in  eveiy  |)innacle  and  crevice  all  the 
blues  of  heaven,  the  i)alest  tints  of  beryl  and  glacier 
ice,  and  the  sheen  of  snow  and  silver  in  the  sunshine. 
It  is  worthily  Jiamed  for  Professor  (ieorge  Davidson, 
the  astronomer,  and  its  lower  slopes  were  explored 
b\'  liim  during"  his  visits  to  the  Chilkat  country  on 
goxcrnment  an<l  scientific  missions. 

Rountling  a  sharp   point    beyond  the  glacier,  the 
mk  IdaJio  swe[)t   into  a  circling,  half-moon  cove,    where 

a  picturesque  Indian  camj)  nestled  at  the  foot  of 
the  precipitous  Mount  Labouchere,  not  named  foi  the 
witty  editor  of  tlie  London  7/7////,  but  foi'  one  of  the 
Hudson  Hay  Company's  steamers  that  first  ])enctrated 
these  waters  and  anchored  regularlv  in  this  Pyramid 
Harbor.  The  cannon-shot,  which  was  such  an  impor- 
tant feature  in  the  progress  of  the  IdaJio,  gave  a 
tremendous  echo  from  mountain  to  mountain,  and 
glacier  to  glacier,  and  thundered  and  rolled  down  the 
inlet  for  uncounted  seconds,  [is  the  anchor  dropped. 
The  tents  and  bark  huts,  and  the  trader's  store  of  the 
little  settlement,  showed  finely  against  the  ileej)  green 
mat  at  the  foot  of  the  vertical  mountain,  and  in  the 
early  afternoon  all  lay  in  clear  shadow,  and  the  moun- 
tain seemed  to  almost  overhang  the  ship  as  she  swung 
round  from  her  anchor  chain.  There  was  an  excited 
rushing  to  and  fro  on  shore  ;  dogs  and  Indians  gath- 


4 


/> 


i 


W 


A  A 


jf.- 


w 


rUH  SirixAX   AltClUPKLAfiO. 


105 


ered  at  the  beach,  and   canoes  put    off   before   the 
sliip's  boats  were   h)\vered  to  take  us  ashore. 

The  Northwest  'I'raiHn^^  Corni)any's  hirj^e  store  and 
salmon  canneiv  were  quite  overlooked  in  the  travel- 
lers' hasty  rush  for  tlie  Indian  tent.^,  that  were  scat- 
tered in  <;roups  alon^j;  the  narrow  clearin;j;  between 
tide-water  and  mountain  wall.  Hefore  each  tent  and 
cabin  were  tranies,  hunf;  with  what  looked  to  be  bits 
of  red  Hamiel  at  a  distance,  but  i)roved  to  be  drying 
saliuon  when  we  reached  them.  It  was  a  gaudy  and 
effective  decoration,  and  a  Chilkat  salmon  is  as  bright 
a  color,  when  caught,  as  a  lobster  after  it  has  been 
boileil.  Though  a  warlike  and  aggressive  people,  the 
Chilkats  practise  many  of  the  arts  of  peace,  and  the 
wood-carvings  and  curios  that  the  had  for  sale  were 
eagerly  bought.  Miniature  totem  j)oles  and  canoes, 
pipes,  masks,  forks,  and  spoons  changed  ownership 
rapidly,  and  Indians  and  i)asscngers  regretted  that 
there  were  no  more.  Hone  sticks,  used  for  martin- 
traps  by  the  Tinneh  tribes  of  the  interior,  were  to 
be  had,  with  every  stick  topjjcd  with  some  totemic 
beast,  and  there  were  queer  little  fish  and  toys  of 
soapstone,  made  by  the  same  peaceful  natives.  Cop- 
per bracelets,  covered  with  Chilkat  designs,  were 
offered  by  a  lame  rascal,  who  said,  "  Gold !  gold  ! "  to 
the  eager  curio-seekers  who  snatched  at  his  shining 
wares.  Copper  knives  and  arrow-tips  were  also  dis- 
played, and  articles  of  this  metal  are  distinctly  Chil- 
kat work,  as  the  art  of  forging  copper  was  long  a 
secret  of  theirs.  Relics  of  the  stone  age  were 
brought  forth,  and  granite  mortars  and  axes,  and 
leather  dressers  of  slate,  offered  for  sale.  Stone- 
age  implements  a  s  being  rapidly  gathered  up  in  this 


106 


so  UTHEIiX  .  1  LA  SKA. 


country,  and  a  trader,  who  has  received  and  filled  large 
orders  for  eastern  museums  and  societies,  threatens 
to  bring  up  a  skilled  stonecutter  to  su))i)ly  the  in- 
creasing demands  of  scientists,  now  tluit  the  Indians 
have  })arted  with  most  of  their  heirloom  specimens. 

In  one  tent  two  women  were  at  work  weaving  a 
large  Chilkat  blanket  on  a  primitive  loom.  These 
blankets,  woven  from  the  long  fleece  of  the  mountain 


<  1111  K  \r    HI.ANKI-.r. 


■■;  1    ' 

( 


goat,  have  been  a  specialty  of  the  Chilkats  as  long  as 
white  men  have  known  them.  Tlie  chiefs  who  met 
Vancouver  were  wrapped  in  these  gorgeous  totemic 
blankets  or  cloaks,  and  in  early  thi}-s  they  were  common- 
ly worn  by  the  chiefs  and  rich  men.  Since  the  traders 
have  introduced  the  v/oollen  blankets  of  commerce, 
the  native  manufactures  have  been  neglected,  and 
now  that  the  art  is  dying  out,  the  few  that  remain  i,i 
the  possession  of  the  natives  are  highly  valued  and 


THE  Sir  KAN  AnCtUPELAGO. 


10' 


only  taken  from  their  cedar  boxes  on  the  occasion  of 
<,q-eat  feasts  and  ceremonies.  These  blankets  are 
found  among  all  the  Thlinket  tribes,  and  the  llaidas 
at  Kasa-an  Hay  had  many  Chilkat  cloaks  and  gar- 
ments stored  away  in  their  cabins.  The  blankets 
average  two  yards  in  width  intl  about  one  yard  in 
depth,  and  are  bordered  at  tlie  ends  and  across  the 
bottom  with  a  deep  fringe.  The  colors  are  black, 
white,  and  yclU)w,  with  occasional  touches  of  a  soft, 
dull  blue.  Soot,  or  bituminous  coal,  gives  the  base  for 
the  black  dye,  and  they  get  tlie  pu?"e,  brilliant  yellow 
from  a  moss  that  grows  on  the  rocks.  The  blue  is 
made  by  boiling  copper  and  seaweeds  together.  They 
makQ  fine  trophies  for  wall  decorations,  or,  as  rugs  or 
lambrec[uins,  are  suijcrior  to  the  Navajo  and  Zuni 
blankets  of  the  New  Mexico  Indians.  The  totemic 
figures  woven  in  these  cloaks  tell  allegories  and 
legends  to  tlie  natives,  antl  the  conventionalized 
whales,  eagles,  and  ravens  are  full  of  meaning,  record- 
ing the  great  battles  between,  the  clans,  the  incidents 
of  family  history,  and  deeds  at  arms.  The  price  of  a 
bl:i.nker  ranges  from  twenty  to  forty  dollars ;  the  fine- 
ness of  ihe  work,  the  beauty  of  the  design,  and  the 
anxiety  of  the  purchaser  all  helping  to  increase  the 
price. 

As  in  all  Indian  villages,  the  fierce,  wolfish-looking 
dogs  showed  an  inclination  to  growl  and  snap  at  the 
white  people,  but  the  hard-featured,  strong-minded 
women  of  the  Chilkat  tribe  silenced  them  with  a 
word,  or  a  skilfully  thrown  bnintl  snatched  from  the 
family  camp  fire.  1'he  children  and  the  dogs  were 
always  getting  under  foot  and  crowding  into  each 
group,  and  in  the  Alpine  valley,  where  the  afternoon 


108 


tiOl'TIfKIiy  A  LA  Sh'A. 


|:  ' 


r!| 


f  ii 

-*  HI 

a  1! 


shadows  brought  a  pleasant  sharpness  to  the  air,  the 
youngsters  were  as  scantily  clad  as  in  the  tropics. 
They  sat  on  the  tlamp  ground  dwd  stole  handfuls  of 
rice  from  the  pots  boiling  on  the  fires,  or  furtively 
dipped  the  spoons  into  the  mess  one  minute  and  hit 
the  dogs  with  the  table  utensil  the  next.  One  boy, 
who  had  sold  a  great  many  little  carved  toys  to  the 
visitors,  dashed  off  into  a  thicket  of  wild  roses,  and 
gallantly  brought  back  fragrant  pink  blossoms  for  his 
customers.  Sitka  Jack's  carved  canoe  was  drawn  up 
on  shore,  and  that  grandee  at  last  appeared  to  us, 
and  after  selling  his  own  pipe  and  carved  possessions, 
he  wandered  about  aiid  interfered  in  every  one's  bar- 
gains by  urging  the  natives  to  ask  more  for  their 
curios. 

Of  the  white  celebrities  residing  at  Pyramid  Harbor, 
there  was  one  with  the  enviable  fame  of  being  "  the 
hantlsomest  man  in  Alaska,"  and  when  he  went 
gliding  out  to  the  ship  in  a  swift  native  canoe,  and 
appeared  on  deck  as  ii  just  step])cd  aside  from  a 
Broadway  stroll,  there  was  a  perceptible  flutter  in  the 
ladies'  cabin.  Another  fine-looking  man  of  distin- 
guished manner,  founil  wandering  on  shore,  proved  to 
be  a  French  count,  who,  having  dissipated  three 
fortunes  in  the  gayeties  of  a  Parisian  life,  has  hidden 
himself  in  this  remote  corner  of  the  world  to  ponder 
on  the  ])hih)so|)hy  of  life,  and  wait  for  the  favorable 
stroke  that  shall  enable  him  to  return  and  shine  once 
more  among  his  gav  comrades  of  the  boulevard,  the 
Hois  and  the  opera  foyer. 

At  l^yramid  Harbor  the  ship  reached  the  most 
northern  point  on  her  course  and  the  end  of  the  inside 
passage.     At  59°  11'  N.  we  were  many  degrees  distant 


i 


li 


■^ 


THK  SITh'AN  AliCHIPELAaO. 


109 


from  the  Arctic  Circle,  i^ut,  although  it  was  mid-July, 
the  sun  did  not  set  until  half  past  nine  o'clock  by 
ship's  time,  and  the  clear  tw'light  lasted  until  the 
r^^yal  flush  of  sunrise  was  batliing  the  summits  of  the 
higher  mountains.  At  midnight  tine  print  could  be 
read  on  deck,  and  at  the  hour  when  chuichyards  yawn 
the  amateur  photogra})hers  turned  their  cameras  upon 
the  matchless  panorama  before  them,  and  the  full 
witchery  of  that  serene  northern  night  was  felt  when 
the  crescent  of  llie  \uung  moon  showed  itself  faint 
and  ethereal  in  the  eastern  sky. 

We  had  been  watching  a  rocky  platform  up  on  the 
nn)untain  side,  in  the  hopes  of  seeing  the  bea'  with 
her  cubs,  who,  living  in  some  crexice  near  there,  was 
said  to  promenade  on  her  airy  perch  at  all  hours  of 
the  day  antl  look  down  defiantly  on  the  settlement. 
We  were  tiring  of  that  cuckoo-clock  amusement, 
when  a  shaggy  man  came  on  the  scene  and  .-^aid  to 
the  j)hotographers,  — 

"  Vou  ought  to  have  been  here  in  June,  if  you 
wanted  to  see  long  days.  You  never  would  know 
when  It  was  time  to  go  to  bed  then." 

"Doesn't  it  ever  get  dark  here.''"  we  yawned  at 
him  in  chorus. 

"  Sometimes,"  he  answered.  "  'Bout  long  enough 
to  get  your  overcoat  off,  I  reckon." 

A  year  later  there  was  the  same  beautiful  trip  up 
Lynn  Canal,  and  as  a  mark  of  growth  and  progress 
the  Ancofi  found  a  large  wharf  to  tie  up  to  at  Pyramid 
Marbor.  The  canner\'  l)uikling  had  been  enlarged, 
and  the  huHan  tents  replaced  with  log  and  bark 
houses.  The  cannery,  that  had  been  a  losing  venture 
in  the  first  year,  gave  promise  of  better  returns,  and 


110 


SOUTH  Eli  N  ALASKA. 


Pyramid  Harbor  wore  quite  a  prosperous  air.  The 
Indians  and  their  curios  were  again  the  sole  distract- 
ing interest  of  the  passengers,  and  the  Chilkats,  as 
before,  sold  everything  desirable  that  they  owned. 

A  strapping  young  Indian  seized  upon  us  as  ve 
were  wondering  on  shore,  rattled  off  the  few  words, 
"  My  papa,  Sitka  Jack,  my  papa  heap  sick,"  and  soon 
we  were  chasing  over  grass  and  gravel,  at  the  heels  of 
this  young  Hercules,  to  his  neat  log  house.  The  son 
of  Sitka  Jack  showed  first  the  curios  he  had  for  sale, 
and  then  his  pretty  wife,  who  wore  a  yellow  dress  and 
a  bright  blue  blanket,  and  had  a  clean  face  illuminated 
by  soft  black  eyes  and  rosy  cheeks.  Lastly  he  led  us 
at  a  quickstep  to  the  place  where  his  venerable  papa 
sat  crouched  in  a  blanket.  The  son  spoke  luiglish 
well,  but  so  rapidly,  that  he  brought  himself  up  breath- 
less every  few  minutes,  and  the  docile,  infant-ile  way 
in  which  this  six-footed  fellow  spoke  of  his  **papa" 
more  than  amused  us. 

The  "papa"  is  one  of  the  head  chiefs  of  the  Sitka 
tribe,  but  goes  to  Chilkat  Inlet  every  sum  •  f^r  to  visit 
his  wife's  relations  during  the  salmon  season.  He 
is  an  arrant  old  rascal,  and  has  made  a  great  deal 
of  trouble  at  times ;  but  in  his  feeble  old  age  he 
has  a  kindly  and  pleasant  smile,  and  a  quiet  dignity 
that  is  in  great  contrast  to  his  vehement,  impetuous 
young  son.  Mrs.  Sitka  Jack  is  the  sister  of  Doniwak, 
the  one-eyt'd  tyrant  who  rules  the  lower  Chilkat 
village,  and  now  that  her  liege  is  becoming  helpless, 
her  influence  is  more  su))reme  than  ever.  She  sat 
like  a  queen,  kindly  rela.xing  some  of  the  grimness  of 
her  expression  when  she  saw  that  we  had  been  buy- 
ing from  her  son,  but  everything  indicated  that  she 


THE  161TKAN  AlWHIPELAdO. 


Ill 


had  the  most  eloquent  and  obstreperous  chief  of  the 
Sitkans  completely  disciplined.  One  of  her  Chilkat 
nephews  was  introduced  to  us  by  her  glib  son,  and 
the  hulking  young  savage  fairly  crushed  our  civilized 
hands  in  his  friendly  grasp,  and  critically  examined 
our  purchases. 

A  wild-looking  old  medicine-man,  with  long  red  hair, 
hovered  on  the  outskirts  of  the  grou}),  and  finally 
showed  us,  with  innocent  pride,  a  naval  officer's  letter 
of  credentials,  which  testified  to  his  having  a  good 
ear  for  music,  since  he  neither  flinched  nor  winked, 
when  a  large  cannon  was  slyly  touched  off  at  his 
elbow,  during  one  of  his  visits  on  board  a  man-of-war. 

Three-F'ingered  Jack,  a  celebrity  of  another  order, 
wandered  about  the  camp  arrayed  in  the  cast-off 
uniform  of  a  naval  officer,  with  his  breast  pinned  full 
of  tin  and  silver  stars,  like  a  German  diplomat. 
Sitka  Jack's  son  looked  cjuite  unconscious  while  the 
three-fingered  lion  passed  by;  but  when  we  directed 
his  attention  to  him,  the  son  of  his  papa  gave  a  pity- 
ing, contemptuous  look  and  declared  that  he  did  not 
know  who  it  was.  As  well  might  we  ha  'e  asked  one 
of  the  Capulets  who  Romeo  was. 

Kloh-Kutz,  or  Ilole-in-the-Cheek,  the  head  chief  of 
the  Chilkats,  appeared  to  us  only  in  flying  glimpses, 
as  he  ran  up  nnd  down  the  steps  of  the  trader's  store. 
He  is  a  wrinkled  old  fellow  now,  and  the  hole  left  in 
his  cheek  by  a  v/ound  is  decorated  by  a  large  bone 
button  similar  to  those  that  the  women  wear  in  their 
cheeks.  When  Professor  Davidson,  of  the  Coast 
Survey,  went  to  t!ie  Chilkat  country  in  1867,  on  the 
revenue  cutter  Lincoln,  Capt.  J.  VV.  White  command- 
ing, to  gather  material  for  a  report   upon   the  topo- 


112 


SOUTUEIiX  ALASK.t. 


) : 


•It 


1     i 
J    .1 


graphy,  climate,  and  the  resources  of  Alaska,  called 
for  by  the  Congressional  committees  having  the  mat- 
ter of  the  purchase  of  the  territory  in  charge,  he  first 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Kloh-Kutz,  then  in  his 
prime. 

In  1869  Professor  Davidson  revisited  the  Chilkat 
country  to  observe  the  total  eclipse  of  the  sun,  and, 
by  invitation  of  Kloh-Kutz,  established  his  observa- 
tory  at  the  village  of  Klu-Kwai',  twenty  miles  up  the 
Chilkat  River.  The  station  was  called  Kloh-Kiitz  in 
honor  of  tiic  distinguished  patron  and  protector  of 
the  scientists,  who  gave  them  the  great  council-house 
for  a  residence.  In  the  ardor  of  his  hospitality  Kloh- 
Kutz  was  going  to  have  the  name  "Davidson" 
tattoed  on  his  arm,  but  at  the  suggestion  of  the 
astronomer  gave  up  that  elaborate  design,  and  had 
"  Seward  '  traced  across  his  biceps  with  a  needle 
and  thread  dipped  in  soot  and  seal  oil  and  drawn 
through  the  flesh.  He  was  quite  willing  to  wear  his 
name  when  he  learned  that  Seward  was  the  great 
Tju'c,  or  chief,  who  bought  the  country  of  the  Rus- 
sians and  thereby  rai-'-ed  the  price  of  furs  so  greatly. 

In  advance  of  the  eclij^tse,  Professor  Davidson  told 
his  host  what  would  happen  ;  that  the  sun  would  be 
hidden  at  midday,  and  darkness  fall  upon  the  land 
on  the  7th  of  August,  and  that  it  would  come  as  a 
great  shadow  sweeping  down  the  valley  of  the  Chil- 
kat. The  Indians  had  always  gathered  and  silently 
watched  the  white  men  wdien  they  pointed  their 
strange  instruments  at  the  sun  each  day,  but  they  fled 
in  terror  when  the  great  darkness  began  to  come,  and 
did  not  return  until  the  eclipse  was  over.  They 
regarded  Professor  Davidson  with  the  greatest  awe, 


I 


TIIK  .s/77i.rv   AliCIIIPtLACO. 


UH 


I 


as  a  wonderful  mcdicinc-man  wlio  could  perform 
such  great  miracles  at  will ;  and  Kloh-Kulz,  delighted 
with  the  great  trick  of  his  friend,  made  a  serious 
offer  of  all  his  canoes,  hlankets,  and  wives,  if  the 
astronomer  would  tell  him  "how  he  did  it,"  and 
divulge  the  secret  conhdentially  to  a  brother  con- 
jurer. 

The  evening  before  the  eclipse,  wonl  reached  Pro- 
fessor Da\idson  that  Secretary  Seward  and  his  party 
were  at  the  mouth  of  the  Chilkat  River,  to  convey 
him  back  to  Portland  on  tlieir  steamer,  as  soon  as 
his  observations  were  completed.  Kloh-Kutz  was 
invited  to  come  down  and  meet  the  great  '/'ycc,  and 
hold  a  council  with  (ien.  Jeff.  C.  Davis,  the  military 
commandant,  who  had  gone  up  from  Sitka  with  the 
Seward  party.  Kloh-Kutz  ciiose  the  flower  of  Chil- 
kat chivalry  to  go  below  with  his  great  war  canoe 
and  carry  a  letter  from  Professor  Davidson  to  Mr. 
Seward,  urging  him  to  "  come  up  hither  "  and  see 
the  territory  he  had  bought  ;  and  luring  on  the  ex- 
premier  by  saying  that  he  had  discovered  an  iron 
mountain,  the  ore  of  which  was  seventv  per  cent 
iron.  Referring  to  this  fact  in  a  speecli  made  at  a 
public  meeting  in  Sitka  afterwards,  Mr.  Seward 
said  : 

'•'When  I  came  tiiere  I  found  very  i:)r()j)erly  he  had 
been  studying  the  heavens  so  busily  that  he  had  but 
cursorily  examined  the  earlli  under  his  feet  ;  that  it 
was  not  a  single  iion  mountain  he  had  discovered, 
but  a  range  of  hills,  the  very  rlust  of  which  adheres 
to  the  magnet,  while  the  range  itself,  2,000  feet  high, 
extends  along  the  east  bank  of  the  river  thirty 
miles." 


In 


^n- 


w 


114 


so  U  Til  Eli  y  A  LA  SKA. 


Mr.  Seward  and  liis  son,  and  General  Davis,  with  two 
staff  officers,  and  others  of  the  party,  left  the  ship  in 
three  canoes  early  on  the  morning;  of  the  day  of  the 
eclipse.  They  were  half  way  up  to  Klu-Kwan  village, 
when  tin;  shadow  bej;an  to  cross  the  sun,  and  the 
weird,  unearthly  light  fell  upon  the  land.  The  In 
(Hans  in  the  canoe  said  the  sun  "  was  very  sick  and 
wanted  to  go  to  sleep,"  and  they  refused  to  paddle  any 
further.  The  canoes  were  beached  quickly,  and  the 
visitors  made  a  sociable  camp-fire  for  themselves,  and 
cooked  their  (hnner  by  its  blaze  Late  in  the  after- 
noon they  reached  the  village,  and  that  evening  Kloh- 
Kutz  made  a  call  of  ceremony  upon  the  guests  in  the 
council-house.  There  was  an  array  of  Chilkat  chiefs 
and  Chilkat  women  to  witness  the  meeting  of  the 
Tyees,  and  after  a  speech  of  welcome,  Kloh-Kutz 
drew  up  his  sleeve  .dramatically  and  showed  the 
'•  Si:\VAKD "  tattoed  with  his  totems  on  his  arm. 
The  great  diplomat  was  quite  astonished  and  be- 
wildered, and  the  handwriting  on  the  wail  hardly 
made  a  greater  sensation  in  I^elshazzar's  court, 

The  next  morning  the  iva-way  or  official  council, 
was  held  with  the  aid  of  two  interpreters,  one  to 
translate  English  into  Russian,  and  the  other  to 
translate  Russian  into  Chilkat.  Believing  that  if 
Mr.  Seward  bought  Alaska,  he  must  still  own  it  in 
person,  Kloh-Kutz  ignored  Gen.  Davis,  as  being  only 
the  great  Tyee's  servant,  and  addressed  himself 
directly  to  the  supposed  ruler  of  the  whole  country. 
His  grievance  was  that,  ten  years  before,  three 
Chilkats  had  been  killed  at  Sitka,  and  now,  "What 
is  the  great  Tyee  going  to  do  about  it?"  Kloh- 
Kutz  was  not  to  be  put  off  by  the  diplomatic  answer 


TlIK   SITKAN    AUruiPELAGO. 


115 


that  the  murder  had  happened  during  Russian  days. 
He  said  that  "  the  Tyee  of  tlie  Russians  was  so  poor 
that  he  could  not  keep  his  land  and  iiad  to  sell  it," 
but  for  all  that  he  must  have  rejiaration  for  liie  loss 
of  his  three  Chilkats.  To  his  mind  one  Chilkat  was 
worth  three  Sitkans,  and  if  the  Tyee  would  let  him 
kill  nine  Sitkans,  the  aeeount  would  be  squared. 
With  a  finesse  worthy  of  a  diplomat  who  had  dealt 
with  all  the  great  nations  (»f  tlie  earth,  Mr.  Seward 
finally  brought  Kloh-Kutz  down  to  aeeejHing  forty 
blankets  as  an  indemnity,  and  he  and  his  sub-chief 
Colchica  and  their  wives  led  the  guard  of  honor  that 
escorted  the  great  Tyee  back  to  his  shi}).  Captain 
C.  C.  Dall,  who  commanded  the  steamer  Active 
during  that  memorable  cruise,  gave  a  great  entertain- 
ment to  the  chiefs  on  board,  and  fireworks  rounded 
off  that  memorable  evening.  Mr.  Seward  presented 
a  flag  to  the  Chilkat  chief,  and  at  the  banquet  in 
the  cabin,  he  and  Professor  Davidson  gave  astronomy 
by  easy  lessons  to  their  Chilkat  visitors,  and  dis- 
claimed any  agency  in  the  eclipse  as  an  accompani- 
ment of  the  Tyee's  visit. 

Kloh-Kutz  is  delighted  yet  to  show  his  Seward  tat- 
too mark  to  any  one,  a^nl  to  tell  of  the  visit  of  the  great 
Tyee.  Me  is  a  chief  ot  advanced  and  liberal  notions, 
a  high-strung,  im]-)erious  old  fellow,  and  has  a  fine 
countenance,  marred  onlv  by  the  wound  in  his  cheek, 
which  was  received  at  the  hands  of  one  of  his  own 
tribe  during  some  internecine  troubles.  His  assailant 
held  a  revolver  close  to  Kloh-Kutz's  head,  and  when 
the  chief  looked  scornfully  at  it,  the  trigger  was 
snapped.  Weak  powder  prevented  the  ball  from 
inflicting  any  more  seriou.^  injuries  than  to  enter  his 


I    I 


i 
■i  \ 


uo 


M>r  77/ /•;/.' A    ALASKA. 


•1 

t 


1    !  .!• 


check  and  tear  awav  a  few  teeth  Klnh-Kutz  swal- 
lowed  his  teeth  and  handed  the  Inillet  back  to  his 
[issaikmt  witli  a  fine  gesture,  saying:  "  You  cannot 
hurt  me.     See  !  " 

A  few  years  since  a  young  (icrnian  was  sent  up  to 
estabhsh  tiie  tracHng  post  at  Pyramid  Harbor,  and 
was  intro(hiced  to  Kloh-Kutz  as  a  great  Tyec.  When 
the  agent  failed  to  recogni/.e,  or  understand  the 
meaning  of  the  "vSiiwahd"  on  Ids  cU-ni,  Kloii-Kutz 
was  disgusted,  and  refused  to  treat  with  him  as  any- 
thing but  a  mere  trader 

"  How  can  lie  be  a  Tyce,  if  lie  does  not  know  the 
chief  of  all  the  Tyees  ?"  scornfully  said  Kloh  Kutz. 

On  the  east  shore  of  Chilkat  Inlet,  opposite 
Pyramiti  Harbor,  is  the  rival  trading  station  of 
Chilkat,  where  Kinney,  the  Astoria  salmon  packer, 
has  another  cannery.  In  the  rivalry  and  competition 
of  the  first  year  (1S83)  btween  the  Pyramid  Harbor 
and  Chilkat  canneries,  the  jiricc  of  salmon  rose  from 
two  to  fifteen  cents  for  a  single  fish,  and  the  Indians, 
once  demoralized  by  opposition  prices,  refused  to 
listen  to  reason  when  the  canneries  had  to,  and 
Chinese  cheap  labor  was  imported.  There  has  been 
wrath  in  the  Chilkat  heart  ever  since  the  Chmese 
cousins  went  there,  and  old  Kloh-Kutz  indignantly 
said  :  "  If  Indian  know  how  to  make  Jiooclii)ioo  (whis- 
key) out  of  an  oil  can  and  a  piece  of  seaweed,  he 
knows  enough  to  can  salmon." 

During  its  first  year  the  Kinney  cannery  shipped 
sixty  barrels  of  .salt  salmon  and  2,890  cases  of  canned 
salmon,  working  at  a  great  disadvantage  for  want  of 
proper  nets.  In  1884  the  amount  of  .salmon  shipped 
was  doubled. 


-jJI|M|M1,i'm; 


THK  SJTKAN   Alii  llirKLA'JO. 


117 


Chilkat  and  Pymmirl  Harbor  arc  rivals  also  in  the 
fur  tratle,  and  at  Chilkat  especially,  tlie  skins  and 
furs  shown  were  finer  than  had  been  seen  at  any 
of  the  cjtluM'  tradin;^  ('laces.  The  shrewd  C'hilkals 
are  as  hard  bargainers  as  the  old  Hudson  Hay  Com- 
pany people  ever  were,  and  they  get  the  furs  from 
the  interior  tribes  for  a  mere  trifle  in  comparison 
to  what  they  demand  for  the  same  })elts  from  tlie 
traders.  In  Hudson  Hay  Company  trades,  the  cheap 
flint-lock  muskets  used  to  be  sold  to  the  Indians,  by 
standing  the  gun  on  the  ground  and  l)iling  u])  marten 
skins  beside  it,  until  they  were  even  with  the  toji  of 
the  gun-barrel.  That  hoax  is  eciualled  now  by  the 
tricks  of  the  Chilkats,  who  sell  gunpowder  to  the 
unsophisticated  men  of  the  interior  tribes  at  an  aver- 
age rate  of  twenty-five  dollars  a  pound,  and  boast  of 
their  smartness  at  this  kind  of  bargaining  which  brings 
a  profit  of  one  hundred  and  even  two  thousand  per 
cent.  Onlv  one  tourist  was  ever  known  to  get  the 
better  of  a  Chilkat  at  a  bargain,  and  that  was  when  a 
common  red  felt  tennis  hat,  bought  for  half  a  dollar 
at  Victoria,  was  exchanged  for  a  silver  bracelet  bv  a 
Chicago  man,  who  regretted  for  the  rest  of  his  trip 
that  he  had  not  bought  a  box  of  hats  to  trade  for 
curios. 

Hack  of  the  Chilkat  cannery  a  few  miles,  and  fac- 
ing on  Chilkoot  Inlet,  is  the  mission  station  of  Haines, 
named  for  a  benevolent  lady  of  Hrooklyn,  N.  Y.,  who 
supports  the  establishment,  presided  over  by  the  Rev. 
K.  S.  Willard  and  his  wife . 

Either  the  Chilkat,  or  tlie  Chilkoot  Inlet  gives  en- 
trance to  a  chain  of  rivers  and  lakes,  that,  leading 
through  gorges   and  mountain  passes,  conducts  the 


118 


SOUniEIiN  ALASKA. 


.  >j 


H   I 


prospector  by  a  final  portage  to  Lewis  River,  one  of 
the  head  tributaries  of  the  Yukon.  The  Chilkat  In- 
dians, with  a  fine  sense  of  the  importance  of  their 
position,  have  always  closely  guarded  these  approaches 
to  the  interior,  and  preventetl  tiie  Indians  of  the  back 
country  from  ever  coming  down  to  the  coast  and  the 
white  traders.  They  have  thus  held  the  monopoly  of 
the  fur  trade  of  the  region,  and,  while  keeping  tt.c 
interior  Indians  back,  have  been  quite  as  careful  not 
to  let  any  white  men  across. 

On  account  of  this  guard,  Vancouver's  men  expe- 
rienced some  of  the  hospitable  attentions  of  the  Chil- 
kats  when  they  were  exploring  the  channel  in  1794. 
A  canoe-load  of  natives  bore  down  upon  Whidby's 
boat,  and  urged  the  Englishmen  to  accompany  them 
on  up  the  Chilkat  River  to  the  great  villages,  where 
eight  chiefs  of  consequence  resided.  Vancouver's 
men  declined  the  invitation,  and  the  chief,  command- 
ing the  first  canoe,  made  hostile  flourishes  with  the 
btass  speaking-trumpet  and  other  nautical  insignia 
that  he  carried.  They  followed  the  boats  out  to  the 
mouth  of  the  channel,  and  alarmed  the  iMiglishmen 
greatly,  as  they  feared  an  attack  by  the  whole  tribe 
at  any  moment. 

The  Russian  and  Hudson  Hay  Cn?iii)any's  ships 
traded  with  the  Chilkats  for  a  half  c  'nr.ury  without 
ever  dealing  directly  with  one  of  the  natives  of  the 
interior,  from  whom  came  the  vast  stores  of  furs 
that  were  exchanged  each  year.  The  Chilkats  met 
the  men  of  the  Tinneh  (interior)  tribes  at  an  estab- 
lished place  many  miles  from  the  mouth  of  the  river, 
and  occasionally,  as  a  matter  of  diplomacy,  they 
would  bring  a  great  Tinneh  chief  down  under  escort, 


THE  Sir K Ay    MtCllirF.LAUO. 


HI) 


aiul  allow  him  to  look  at  Iho  "fire  ship"  of  the 
traders. 

The  first  man  to  run  the  j^auntlet  of  the  Chilkoot 
Pass  was  a  red-headed  Scotchman  in  the  emj)loy  of 
the  Hu  Ison  l^ay  Company,  who  left  l-'ort  Selkirk  in 
1864  and  forced  his  way  alone  through  the  unknown 
country  to  Chilkoot  Inlet.  The  Indians  seized  the 
adventurer  and  held  him  prisoner  until  Captain  Swan- 
son,  with  the  Hudson  Hay  Company  steamer  La- 
boiii/icn-,  came  up  and  took  him  away.  In  1872  one 
George  Holt  dotlged  through  the  Chilkoot  Pass,  and 
went  down  the  Lewis  River  to  the  Yukon.  In  1874 
Holt  again  crossed  the  Chilkoot  Pass,  followeil  the 
Lewis  Riv'T  to  the  V'ukon,  and  then  down  that  mighty 
stream  to  a  place  near  its  mouth,  where  he  crossed 
by  a  portage  to  the  Kuskokquin  River,  and  thence 
to  the  sea. 

In  1877  a  party  of  miners  set  out  from  Sitka  under 
the  leadership  of  ICdmund  Bean,  and  attempted  to 
cross  by  the  Chilkoot  i*ass,  but  the  Intlians  obliged 
them  to  turn  back. 

\\\  1878  and  in  1880,  prospecting  parties  left  Sitka 
for  the  head  waters  of  the  Yukon,  and  the  latter  com- 
pany, through  the  clever  diplomacy  and  active  interest 
of  Captain  Ik'ardslee,  commanding  the  U.  S,  S.  James- 
toivii,  were  hospitably  received  by  the  Chilkats  and 
guided  through  their  country,  when  convinced  thai 
they  wt)uld  not  interfere  with  their  fur  trade.  They 
found  indications  of  gold  all  the  way,  and  large  gravel 
deposits.  This  party  descended  the  Lewis  River  to 
Fort  Selkirk  and  there  divided,  one  set  of  prospectors 
going  down  to  Fort  Yukon,  and  the  others  up  the 
Pelly  River  and  thence  to  the   head   waters   of   the 


( ■ 


f  F      ^T" 


mimmmmmm 


120 


sour  HERN  ALASKA. 


.   -I 


Stikine  River  and  the  Cassiar  region  of  British  Co- 
lumbia. 

la  the  spring  of  1882  a  party  of  forty-five  miners, 
all  old  Arizona  prospectors,  left  Juneau  for  the  head 
waters  of  the  Yukon.  They  returned  in  the  fall,  and 
reported  discoveries  of  gold,  silver,  copper,  nickel, 
and  bituminous  coal  in  the  region  between  the  Cop- 
per and  Lewis  Rivers. 

In  the  spring  of  1883  one  Dugan  led  a  party  from 
Juneau  over  the  divide.  In  September  they  sent  back 
by  Indians  for  an  additional  supply  of  provisions,  in- 
tending to  remain  in  the  interior  all  winter.  They 
reported  placer  mines  yielding  one  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  a  day  to  the  man,  but  another  party,  that  left 
Juneau  soon  after  Dugan,  returned  in  September 
without  having  found  any  placers  that  yielded  more 
than  twenty-five  dol'ivis  a  day. 

Altogether  more  than  two  hundred  prospectors 
crossed  from  Lynn  Canal  to  the  Yukon  country  dur- 
ing the  first  tliree  years  after  the  Chilkats  raised  their 
blockade,  l^he  Chilkats  kept  control  of  the  travel, 
and  charged  six  and  ten  dollars  for  each  hundred 
pounds  of  goods  that  they  T)acked  across  the  twenty- 
four-mile  portage  intervening  between  the  river  and 
the  chain  of  lakes. 

In  May,  1883,  Lieut.  Schwatka  and  party  crossed 
this  same  divide,  and  made  a  quick  journey  of  more 
than  two  thousand  miles  by  raft  down  the  Lewis 
River  to  the  Yukon,  and  down  the  Yukon  to  St.  Mi- 
chael's Island  in  Belunng  Sea,  and  thence  to  San 
Francisco  by  the  revenue  cutter  Conviri. 

In  April,  1884,  Dr.  Everette,  U.  S.  A.,  and  two 
companions  went  over  the  Chilkat  Pass  to  work  their 


M 


THE  STTKAX  AlUJUlPKLAdO. 


121 


way  westward  to  Copper  River  and  descend  it  to  its 
mouth.  In  June,  Lieut.  Abercronibie,  U.  ^il  A.,  and 
three  companions  were  lauded  at  the  month  ot  Cop- 
per River,  with  orders  to  ascend  that  streai.i  and 
descend  tlie  Chilkat  to  Lynn  Canal.  These  expedi- 
tions were  sent  out  by  order  of  General  Miles,  com- 
manding the  l)ei)artment  of  the  Cohniil)ia,  who 
visited  Alaska  in  1882,  and  has  since  manifested  a 
great   interest  in  the  Territory. 

The  present  maps  of  this  upj)er  region  of  the 
Yukon  give  only  the  general  courses  of  the  rivers,  and 
have  not  changed  in  any  important  details  the  Rus- 
sian charts.  A  unKjue  map  of  the  country  is  one 
drawn  h\  Kk^h-Kutz  antl  his  wife  foi"  Profes.sor  Da- 
vidson,  and  which  was  made  the  basis  and  authority 
for  one  official  chart,  the  original  remaining  in  Vvo- 
fessor  Davidson's  possession  at  San  I'rancisco.  Kloh- 
Kutz  has  known  the  \'ukon  route  tiom  childhood,  and, 
lying  face  downw.ird,  he  ;ind  his  wife  chewoi\^the  back 
of  an  old  chart  all  the  ri\ers,  with  the  pi-olile  of  tlie 
mountains  as  they  ap[)ear  on  either  side  ol  tiie  water- 
courses. The  one  great  glacier  in  which,  the  Chilkat 
and  the  Lewis  brat^ch  of  the  Yuktui  River  heatl,  is 
indicated  o\  spow-shoe  tracks  to  show  the  mode  of 
progress,  and  the  limit  of  each  ot  the  lourteen  days' 
journev  acn^ss  to  h'ort  Selkirk  is  marked  by  cross 
lines  on  this  original  Chilkat  map.  The  father  of 
Kloh-Kutz  was  a  great  chief  and  fur-trader  before 
him,  and  was  one  of  the  jxirty  of  Chilkats  that  went 
across  and  burned  h'(»rt  Selkiik  in  1851,  in  retalia- 
tion for  the  Hudson  Hay  Compa.iy's  interference 
with  their  fur  trade  with  the  Tinnehs. 

The   Doctois   Krause,  of  the  ("icographicd  Societv 


I  I 


122 


.so UrifEhW   ALA  SKA . 


of  Bremen,  who  spent  a  year  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Chilkat  lately,  made  some  ex])lorations  of  the  region 
about  the  portages  of  the  Yukon,  and  their  maps  and 
publieations  liave  been  of  great  value  to  the  Coast 
Surv^ey.  There  are  dangerous  ]-a})ids  and  eanons  on 
the  watercourses  leading  to  tlie  Yukon,  and  none  but 
miners  and  the  most  adventurous  traders  will  prob- 
ably ever  avail  themselves  of  this  route  ;  although  by 
going  some  six  hundred  miles  up  to  Fort  Yukon, 
whieh  is  jiist  within  the  Aretic  Cirele,  the  land  of 
the  midnight  sun  is  reached.  Professor  Dall,  who 
spent  two  years  on  the  Yukon,  has  fully  described 
the  country  below  Fort  Yukon  in  his  '•  Resources  of 
Alaska;"  and  the  Schiefflin  Brothers,  of  Tombstone, 
Arizona,  who  followed  his  i)ath  on  an  elaborately 
planned  prospecting  expedition  in  1882  added  little 
and  almost  nothing  more  to  the  general  knowledge  of 
the  region.  The  Schieff^lins  found  gold,  but  considered 
the  remoteness  from  the  sources  of  supplies,  and  the 
long  winters,  too  great  obstacles  for  any  mines  to 
be  ever  successfully  worked  there.  There  are  fur- 
traders'  stations  all  along  the  two  thousant!  miles  of 
the  great  stream,  and  within  t'le  United  States  boun- 
daries, the  Alaska  Commercial  Company,  and  the 
VYestern  Vm  Companv  of  San  Francisco,  buy  the 
pelts  from  the  Indians,  and  dixitle  the  great  fur  trade 
of  this  interior  re-ion. 


I     i 


TUE  SlTKAy  AliL'UlPKLAGO. 


123 


CHAPTER    IX. 


BARTLETT  BAY  AND  THE  HOONIAHS. 


FROM  Pyramid  Harbor  the  ship  went  soutli  to 
Icy  Straits  and  tip  the  otlier  side  of  the  long 
peninsula  to  Glacier  Hay,  so  named  by  Captain 
Heardslee  in  1880.  At  the  mouth  of  it,  in  unknown 
and  unsurveyed  waters,  began  the  search  foi>  a  new 
trading  station  iii  a  cove,  since  known  as  Bartlett 
Bay,  in  honor  of  the  owner  of  the  fishery,  a  merchant 
of  Port  Townsend. 

Vancouver's  boats  passed  by  Glacier  Bay  during  his 
third  cruise  on  this  coast,  and  his  men  s;iav  only 
frozen  mountains  and  an  expanse  of  ice  as  far  as  the 
eye  could  reach.  It  is  only  within  a  decade  that  any- 
thing has  been  kr.own  of  the  extent  of  the  great  bay 
?iu  the  foot  of  the  Fairweather  Alps,  and  no  surveys 
K:ve  been  made  of  its  shores  to  correct  the  imperfect 
en'  rts  now  in  use.  Revenue  cutters,  men-of-war,  and 
traders'  ships  had  gone  as  far  as  the  entrance,  but 
were  prevented  from  advancing  by  adverse  wintls 
and  currents,  floating  ice,  and  shoaling  waters.  The 
old  moraine  left  by  the  ice-sheet  that  once  covered 
the  whole  bay  forms  a  bar  and  barrier  at  its  mouth, 
and  the  channel  has  to  l)e  sought  cautit)usly. 

Skirting  the  wooded  shores  and  sailing  through  ice 
floes,  every  glass  was  brought  into  requisition  for  signs 


124 


.so  I '  Til  K  UN  A  LA  SKA . 


'.    I 


of  life  on  land.  Towards  noon  a  white  man  and  two 
Indians  were  .si^i;htcd  si«^nalling-  from  a  canoe,  and  the 
steamer  waited  while  they  parldled  towards  it.  They 
had  been  oft'  on  an  unsuccssful  hunt  for  the  sea 
otter,  and  gladly  consented  to  have  their  canoe  hauled 
up  on  deck  and  to  impart  all  their  knowledge  of  Hart- 
lett  Cove.  At  three  o'clock  a  resounding  bang  from 
the  cannon  announced  to  the  Hooniah  natives  on  shore, 
that  the  first  ship  that  had  ever  entered  that  harbor 
was  at  hand.  A  canoe  came  rapidly  jiaddling  towards 
us,  and  a  wild  figure  'n  the  stern  and  shouted  to 

the  captain  to  "go  close  o  the  new  house  and  anchor 
in  thirteen  fathoms  of  water."  This  was  Dick  Wil- 
loughby,  the  first  American  ])ioneer  in  Alaska,  a  local 
genius,  and  a  far-away,  ])olar  variety  of  "  Colonel  Sel- 
lers," most  interesting  to  encounter  in  this  last  re- 
gion of  No-Man's  Land.  Dick  Willoighby  came  to 
this  northwest  coast  in  [858,  emigrating  from  Virginia 
by  way  of  Missouri.  Since  that  time  he  has  ranged 
the  Alaskan  shores  from  the  boundary  line  to  Beh- 
ring's  Straits,  trading  with  the  Indians,  and  prosj^ect- 
ing  for  ;dl  the  known  minerals.  Willoughby's  mines 
and  possessions  are  scattered  all  up  and  down  the 
coast,  and  there  is  not  a  new  scheme  01  enterjirise  in 
the  territory  in  which  he  has  not  a  share.  His  mines, 
if  once  developed  to  the  extent  he  claims  possible, 
would  make  him  greater  than  all  the  bonanza  men, 
and  in  crude  and  well-stored  gold,  silver,  iron,  coal, 
copi)er,  lead,  and  marble  he  is  fabulously  rich.  In  all 
the  twenty-five  years  he  has  spent  here,  Dick  Wil- 
loughby  has  gone  down  to  San  Francisco  but  once, 
and  then  was  in  haste  to  get  back  to  his  cool  northern 
home. 


i 

9 


\ 


THE  SITKA.\    ARCHIPELAGO. 


125 


I 


I 


A  little  Indian  camp  edged  the  beach  below  Wil- 
lou^hbv's  log  house  and  store,  and  the  natives  came 
out  to  look  at  us,  with  quite  as  much  interest  as  we 
went  on  shore  to  see  them.  A  small  iceberg,  drifted 
near  shore,  was  the  point  of  attack  for  the  amateur 
photographers,  and  the  Indian  children  marvelled  with 
oi)en  eves  at  the  "  long-legged  gun"  that  was  pointed 
at  the  young  men,  who  posed  on  the  perilous  and  pic- 
turesque points  of  the  berg.  Icebergs  drifting  down 
the  bay,  and  small  cakes  of  ice  washing  in  shore  with 
the  rising  tide,  secured  that  luxury  of  the  summer 
larder  to  the  Indians,  and  in  every  tent  and  bark 
house  on  shore  there  was  to  be  found  a  pail  or  basket 
of  ice-water.  In  Willoughby's  store  tliere  were  curios 
and  baskets  galore,  and  after  his  long  and  quiet  life  in 
the  wilderness  the  \hh)v  man  was  nearly  distracted, 
when  seven  ladies  began  talking  to  him  at  once,  and 
mixetl  up  the  new  style  nickel  pieces  with  the  money 
they  offeretl  him. 

The  packing-house  had  just  been  built,  and  the 
shij)  unloaded  more  lumber,  nets,  salt,  barrel-staves 
and  hoops,  and  general  merchandise  and  provisions 
for  the  new  station.  The  small  lighters  and  canoes 
in  which  the  freight  was  taken  ashore  made  unload- 
ing a  slow  process,  although  the  whole  native  pojnda- 
tion  assisted.  The  small  boys  joined  iii  the  carnival, 
and  little  Indians  of  not  more  th.an  six  \ears  trooped 
over  the  rocky  l)each  barefooted,  and  carried  bundles 
of  barrel-sta\es  and  shingles  on  their  heads. 

We  roamed  the  beach,  hunting  for  the  round,  cup- 
like barnacles  that  the  whales  rub  off  their  tormented 
sides,  and  the  children,  quick  to  see  what  we  were 
looking  for,  trooped   up  the  beach  ahead  of  us,  and 


"■"■f 


''^m^mmmmimmmmmimimmmmmmmmmmmKm, 


V 


126 


SOUTHERN    A  LA SK A . 


soon  returned  with  dozens  of  them  that  they  sold  for 
a  good  price.  Back  in  the  Uttle  valley  and  natural 
clearing,  the  giound  was  covered  with  wild  flowers 
and  running  strawberry  vines,  and  the  botanist  was 
up  to  his  shoulders  in  strange  bushes,  up  to  his 
ankles  in  mire,  and  in  wild  ecstacy  at  his  finds. 
When  we  complimented  Dick  Willoughby  upon  the 
promising  appearance  of  his  little  vegetable  garden, 
and  the  great  crop  of  strawberries  coming  on,  he 
assured  us  that  in  a  few  weeks  the  grou  ul  would  be 
red  with  fruit,  and  that  he  did  not  know  but  that  he 
would  be  canning  the  wild  strawberries  by  another 
year. 

In  one  tent  the  best  Indian  hunter  lay  dying 
from  the  wounds  received  in  an  encounter  with  a 
bear,  his  face  being  stripped  of  Mesh  by  the  clawing 
of  the  fierce  animal,  and  his  body  frightfully  mangled. 
The  Indians,  to  whom  remnants  of  their  superstition 
cling,  viewetl  him  sadly  as  one  punished  by  the 
spirits.  Their  old  shamans  taught  them  that  the 
spirit  of  a  man  resided  'a  the  black  bear,  and  it  was 
sacrilege  to  slay  this  animal,  representing  their  great 
totem.  The  old  men  mutter  prayers  whenever  they 
find  the  tracks  of  a  bear,  and  cannot  be  induced  to 
bring  in  the  skin  entire.  It  is  rare  to  find  an  Alaska 
bear  skin  with  the  nose  on,  the  Indians  believing 
that  they  have  appeased  the  spirit  if  they  leave  that 
sacred  particle  untouched.  The  black,  the  grizzly, 
and  the  rare  St.  Elias  silver  bear  are  found  in  this 
Hooniah  countrv,  and  their  skins  at  the  trader's  store 
ranged  in  price  from  eight  to  twenty  dollars. 

The  mountain  goat  —  Aploceriis  Montana  by  his  full 
name — disports   himself  on   all    the    crags    around 


THE  S!TK.  \  .V    ,1 1!(  lUVKLA  CO. 


127 


Glacier  Bay,  and  leaps  throucjh  the  p^lacial  regions  of 
the  Fairweather  Aljis.  lie  has  a  lon^,  silvery  white 
hair,  that  is  not  particularly  fine,  but  his  sharp,  little 
black  horns  are  great  trophies  for  the  hunter,  and 
are  carved  into  spoon  handles  by  the  expert  crafts- 
men of  all  the  Thlinkct  tribes. 


H  I 


:t 


THI.INKKT    HIKD-l'iri-,    (MDK    AND    KOlTuM). 

The  cool  waters  of  Glacier  Hay,  filled  with  floating 
ice,  are  the  great  summer  resort  for  the  wary  sea  otter 
and  the  hair  seal.  The  fur  seal  is  occasionally  found, 
but  iHvt  in  such  numbers  as  to  make  it  a  feature  of 
the  hunting  season  ;  and  as  the  })elts  are  stretched 
and  dried  before  being  brought  in  by  the  Indians, 
they  are  valueless  to  the  furrier.  The  Hooniahs 
inhabiting  this  bay  and  the  shores  of  Cross  Sound 
and    Icy    Straits   claim    the    monopoly    of    the   seal 


I'/H 


SOCTUKUN   ALASKA. 


and  f)tter  fisheries,  and  have  had  ^reat  wars  with  the 
other  tribes  who  ventured  into  their  hunting  g^rounds. 
Indians  even  came  up  from  British  Cohunbia,  and  a 
few  years  ago  the  Hooniahs  inxoked  tiie  aid  of  the 
man-of-war  to  drive  away  the  trespassing  "  I^ing 
George  men." 

The  seal  is  food,  fuel,  and  raiment  to  them,  and 
square  wooden  boxes  of  seal  oil  stand  in  every 
llooniah  tent.  Age  increases  its  (jualities  for  them, 
anil  rancid  seal  oil  and  dried  salmon,  salmon  eggs, 
or  herring  roe,  mi.xed  with  oil,  and  a  salad  of  sea- 
weed dressed  with  oil,  are  the  national  dishes  of  all 
the  Thlini<et  tribes.  Boiled  seal  flippers  are  a  great 
dainty,  and  in  one  liooniah  tent  we  peered  into  the 
family  kettle,  and  saw  the  black  flippers  waving  in 
the  simmering  waters  like  human  hands.  It  looked 
like  cannibalism,  but  tlie  old  man  who  was  superin- 
tending the  stew  said:  "Seal !  Seal  all  same  as  hog." 
The  Chinook  term  for  seal  is  rocho  Sizvas/i^  or,  liter- 
ally, "  Indian  hog,"  and  it  quite  corresponds  to 
American  pork  in  its  universal  use. 

In  one  smoky  tent,  a  native  silversmith  was  hard 
at  work,  pounding  from  half  dollar  pieces  the  silver 
bracelets  which  are  the  chief  and  valued  ornaments 
of  the  Thlinket  women.  This  Tiffany  of  the  Hooniah 
tribe  nodded  to  us  amiably,  carefully  examined  the 
workmanship  (^f  the  bracelets  we  wore,  and  then 
went  on  to  show  us  how  they  were  made.  We  sat 
fascinated  f  m-  nearly  an  hour  in  the  thick  smoke  that 
blew  in  every  direction  from  the  fire,  to  watch  this 
artist  make  bracelets  with  only  the  rudest  implements. 
He  first  put  the  coin  in  an  iron  spoon  and  set  it  on 
the  coals  for  some  minutes,  and  when  he  drew  out 


TIIK   >/7'A.I  V    Mi(im'i:iA<;n 


12!i 


the  spoon,  and  took  the  silver  disk  ])ct\v('(.Mi  a  paii  of 
old  pincers,  he  noddetl  liis  he;ul  to  us  and  nuitteretl 
Kliuuniii  —  the  Lhiiiuok   unid   [or  soft.      l[oldin<:   it 


with  the  pincers,  he  haniinereti  il  on  an  old  piece 
of  iron,  and  heating  it,  turnini;  it.  and  poiin(dn,L;  away 
vigorously,  he  soon  laid  a  long  sKuder  strip  of  silver 
before  us.  Another  heating,  a  deft  hammering  and 
polishing,  and  the  bi:u'elet  was  iead\  to  he  engraved 
with  a  clumsy  steel  point  in  simjjle  geometrical 
designs,  or  with  the  conx  enlionali/rd  do--l"ish.  salmon, 
seals,  and  whales  of  Ilooidah  art.  After  tiiat  it  was 
heated  and  bent  into  shai)e  to  lit  ilu-  wiist. 

I'^or  these  Klickwillii s,  or  bracelets,  the  white 
visitors  were  asked  'liree  dollars  a  pair,  while  the 
native  rule  is  to  i)ay  the  silversmith  just  twice  the 
value  of  the  coins  used,  lie  was  an  amiable  old 
fellow,  this  Jlooniah  silversmith,  and  he  kept  no 
secrets  of  his  art  from  us.  liringing  out  finger  rings, 
nose  rings,  long  siher  li[)  pins,  and  eanings  to 
show  us.  The  Indian  women  in  his  tent  were  well 
bedecked  with  silver  t)inaments,  and  if  all  thiee  of 
them  were  his  wives,  the  silversmith's  trade  must  be  a 
profitable  one.  Each  women  had  her  wrists  covered 
with  rows  of  closely  fitting  bracelets,  alwa\s  in  odd 
numbers,  and  doid)le  rows  of  rings  were  on  their 
fingers.  The  men  of  these  tribes  sport  tlie  nose 
riuiJ  as  well  as  the  women,  and  are  not  satisfied  with 
wearing  one  jxur  ot  earrings  at  a  time,  but  pierce 
the  rim  of  the  ear  with  a  succession  of  holes,  and 
wear  in  each  one  a  silver  hoop,  a  l)ead,  or  a  charm,  in 
memory  of  some  ixirticular  (\(:q<\. 

The  Hooniahs  are  next  to  the  llaidas  in  skill  and 
intelligence,  and  in  the  graves  of  their  medicine  men 


\M) 


sorriiKny  .\laska. 


■  I, 


arc  found  carvings  on  bone,  and  fossil  ivory,  moun- 
tain ^oat  liorns,  and  shells,  that  prove  that  they 
once  possessed  even  jj^reater  skill  in  these  thin;;s. 
On  the  grave  cloth  of  one  shaman  buried  near  a  vil- 
lage on  Cross  Sound,  were  lately  found  some  flat 
])ieces  of  ivory  and  bone,  four  and  six  inches  long, 
carved  with  faces  and  totem ic  symbols.  y\gc  had 
turned  them  to  a  deep  rich  yellow  and  brown,  and  a 
slight  rubl)ing  restored  the  brilliant  polish,  that 
enhanced  them  when  they  were  first  sewed  to  the 
blankets  and  wrappings  <^f  the  dead  shaman.  Mis 
rattles,  masks,  drums,  and  implements  of  his  i:)rofes- 
sion,  buried  with  him,  were  of  the  finest  workmanship, 
and  proved  the  superiority  of  the  ancient  carvers. 

The  Hooniah  women  weave  baskets  from  the  fine 
bark  of  the  cedar  and  from  split  spruce  roots,  and 
ornament  them  with  geometrical  patterns  in  brilliant 
colors,  but  the  w^eaving  that  we  saw  was  not  as  fine 
as  that  of  some  of  the  more  southern  tribes. 


rUK  slTKAy   Am  UII'KLAdO. 


WW 


1 


CIIAITI'.R    X. 


flH      3 


w 


MUIR    (il.ACIF.K    AND    IDAHO    INLET. 

IllCN  Dick  \Villoii<;hby  inlti  cf  the  -rcat  gla- 
cier thirty  miles  up  the  l)ay,  the  thud  of 
whose  fall in<;  ice  could  be  heard  and  felt  at  his  house, 
and  declared  that  it  once  rattled  the  tea-cups  on  his 
table,  and  sent  a  wave  wasiiing  high  uj")  on  his  shore, 
the  captain  of  the  JiiaJio  said  he  would  go  there, 
and  took  this  Dick  Willoughby  along  to  find  the  place 
and  prove  the  tale.  Away  we  went  coursing  up 
(jlacier  Hay,  a  fleet  of  one  hundred  and  twelve  little 
icebergs  gayly  sailing  out  to  meet  us,  as  we  left  our 
anchorage  the  next  morning.  Kntcring  into  these 
unknown  and  unsurveyed  waters,  the  lead  was  cast 
through  miles  of  bottomless  channels,  and  when  the 
ship  neared  a  green  and  mountainoiis  island  at  the 
mouth  of  the  bay,  the  captain  and  the  pilot  made  me 
an  unconditional  present  of  the  domain,  and  duly 
entered  it  on  the  ship's  log  by  name.  It  is  just  off 
Garden  Point,  and  for  a  summer  resort  '^'ridmore 
Island  possesses  unusual  advantages.  lie. tied  and 
suffering  humanity  is  invited  to  visit  that  emerald 
spot  in  latitude  58°  29'  north,  and  longitude  135°  52' 
west  from  Greenwich,  and  enjoy  the  July  temper- 
ature of  45°,  the  seal  and  salmon  fishing,  the  fine 
hunting,  and  the  sight  of  one  of  the  grandest  of  the 


! 


:    f 

i 

:    I 

■       . » 

*     I 


1  •)« 


SOlTHKUy    ALASKA. 


many  fjicat  <;laciers  that  l)rt':ik  directly  into  the  sea 
al()n<;  the  Alaska  cDast. 

The  {^ray-^M-eeti  .water,  filled  with  sedinu'iit,  told 
that  glaciers  were  near,  aiul  icebei\tjs,  from  the  size  ot 
a  hj)use  down  to  the  merest  lumps,  circled  around  us, 
showinj;  the  ineflable  shades  of  pale  greens  .ind 
bhies,  and  clinking  together  musically  as  the  steamer 
passed  by.  The  tides  rush  fiercely  in  and  out  of 
(ilacier  Hay,  and  heavy  fogs  add  to  the  dingers  of 
navigation,  and  Captain  Ik*ardsiee  and  Major  Morris, 
who  entered  it  in  the  little  steamer  Favorite  in  i(S8o, 
were  obliged  to  i)ut  back  without  making  any  explora- 
tions. The  charts  as  they  now  appear  are  very 
faulty,  the  sketches  having  been  made  from  informa- 
tion given  by  Mr.  Willoughby  and  Indian  seal  hunters, 
and  from  brief  notes  furnished  by  Professor  Muir. 
At  the  head  of  every  inlet  aroimd  the  great  bay  there 
'ire  glaciers,  and  Mr.  Willoughby  said  that  in  five  of 
these  fiords  there  are  glaciers  a  mile  and  a  half  wide, 
with  vertical  fronts  of  seamed  ice  lising  two  hundred 
and  four  hundred  feet  from  the  water.  In  one  of 
them  a  small  island  divides  the  ice  cataract,  and 
Niagara  itself  is  rc])eated  in  this  glacial  corner  of  the 
north.  At  low  tide,  bergs  and  great  sections  of  the 
fronts  fall  off  into  the  water,  and  Glacier  iVay  is  filled 
with  this  debris  of  the  glaciers,  that  floats  out  from 
every  inlet  and  is  swept  to  and  fro  with  the  tides. 

Dick  Willoiighbv  stood  on  the  bridge  with  the 
navigators,  and  gave  them  the  benefit  of  his  expe- 
rience. After  a  while  he  came  back  to  the  group 
of  ladies  on  deck,  and,  sitting  down,  shook  his  head 
seriou.sly  and  said  :  — 

"You  ladies  are  very  brave  to  venture  up  in  such 


( 


rut:  sir K Ay  Mumii'KLAtu). 


\\V. 


I 


a  place.  If  you  only  knew  the  risks  y'»ii  are  runnin;;^ 
—  the  (lan<;ers  you  are  in!"  And  the  pioneer's  voice 
had  a  tonr  of  the  (leej)esl  concern  as  he  said  it. 

W'c  received  this  with  some  lauj;hter,  and  c.\])ressed 
entire  confidence  in  the  cai)tain  and  \)\\o\,  wiio  liad 
penetrated  glacial  fastnessc  anil  unknown  waters 
before.  A  naval  otficer  on  board  echoed  the  W'il 
lou,L;hby  strain,  and  tleclared  that  a  conmumder  would 
never  attenij)l  to  take  a  man-of-war  into  such  a  dan- 
gerous place,  and  deprecated  Captain  Carroll's  daring 
and    rashness.      The    merchant    marine  was  able  to 


l>I.\l.U.\M    cil'     rilK    Ml   IK    i.l.AilKK. 


retaliate  when  this  naval  comment  was  repeated,  and 
Clacier  Hav  was  suggested  as  the  safest  place  for  a 
government  vessel's  cruif^e,  on  account  of  the  entire 
absence  of  schooners. 

The  lead  was  cast  constantly,  and  the  IdaJio  veered 
gracefully  from  right  to  left,  went  slowly,  and  stoi)])ed 
at  times,  to  avoid  the  ice  floes  that  bore  down  upon 
it  with  the  outgoing  tide.  Feeling  the  way  along 
carefully,  the  anchor  was  cast  beside  a  grounded  ice- 
berg, and  the  photographers  were  rowed  off  to  a 
small  island  to  take  the  view  of  the  ship  in  the  midst 
of  that  Arctic  scenery.  Alou/it  Crillon  showed  his 
hoary  head   to   us  in  glimpses   between   the  clouds, 


wmmmm 


mm 


134 


HOUTllEUN  ALA  SKA. 


and  then,  rounding  Willoughljy  Island,  which  the 
owner  declares  \v  solid  marble  of  a  quality  to  rival 
that  of  Pentelicus  and  Carrara,  we  saw  the  full  front 
of  the  great  Muir  Glacier,  where  it  dips  down  and 
breaks  into  the  sea,  at  the  end  of  an  inlet  five  miles 
long. 

The  inlet  and  the  glacier  were  named  for  I'rofessor 
John  Muir,  the  Pacific  coast  geologist,  wlio,  as  (ar  as 
known,  was  the  first  white  man  to  visit  and  explore 
the  glaciers  of  the  bay,  Professor  Muir  >vent  up 
Glacier  Pay,  with  the  Rev.  S,  Mall  Young,  of  P\)rt 
Wrangell,  as  a  c()m|)ani()n.  in  1879.  'Phcy  travelled 
bv  canoe,  and  Professor  Muir,  strapping  a  blanket  on 
hie  back,  and  filling  his  pockets  •  'th  hard  tack,  started 
off  unarmed,  and  spent  days  of  glacial  delight  in  the 
regior.  These  were  the  only  white  men  who  had 
preceded  us,  when  Caj^tain  Carroll  took  the  IdaJio  up 
the  bay  in  T'*^X3,  on  \vhat  was  vUiite  as  good  as  a  real 
voyage  of  exploration. 

Of  all  scenes  and  natural  objects,  nothing  could  be 
grander  and  more  impres.sive  than  the  first  view  up 
the  inlet,  with  the  front  of  tlie  great  glacier,  the 
slope  of  the  glacial  field,  and  the  background  of  lofty 
mountains  unit(Ml  in  one  j/Icture.  Mount  Crillon  and 
Mount  I'airweather  stood  as  sentries  across  the  bay, 
showing  their  summits  fifteen  thousand  feet  in  air, 
clear  cut  as  silhouettes  against  the  sky,  and  the  still- 
ness of  the  air  was  broken  only  by  faint,  metallic, 
I  inkling  sounds,  as  the  itx*  floes  ground  together,  and 
the  waters  waslied  up  under  the  honeycombed  edges 
of  the  floating  bergs.  Steaming  slowly  up  the  inlet, 
the  bold,  cliff-like  fro">t  of  the  glacier  grew  in  height 
as  we  approached  it,  and  there  was  a  sense  of  awe  as 


s 
si 


THE  :srrhAS  AlitUirHLAUO. 


i;jr) 


the  ship  drew  near  enough  for  us  to  hear  the  strange, 
continual  rumbling  of  the  subterranean  or  subglacial 
waters,  and  see  the  avalanches  of  ice  that,  break- 
ing from  the  front,  rushed  down  into  the  sea  with 
tremendous  crashes  and  roars.  Estimates  of  the 
height  of  the  ice  '.lift  increased  with  nearness,  and 
from  a  first  guess  of  fifty  feet,  there  succ<.'eded  those 
of  two  hundred  and  four  hundr(.il  feet,  which  the 
authority  of  angles  has  since  proven  as  correct. 

The  [dalio  was  but  an  eighth  A  a  mile  from  the 
front  of  the  glacier,  when  the  anchor  was  cast  in 
eighty-four  fathoms  of  water  at  low  tide,  and  near  us, 
in  ihe  mids.  of  these  deep  souncHngs,  icebergs  loaded 
with  boulders  lay  grounded,  with  forty  feet  of  their 
summits  above  water.  Words  antl  dry  figures  can 
give  one  little  idea  of  the  grandeur  of  this  glacial 
torrent  liowing  steadily  ana  solidly  into  tlie  sea,  and 
the  beauty  of  the  fantastic  ice  front,  shimmering  with 
all  the  prismatic  hues,  i.>  beyond  imagery  or  descrip- 
tion. 

AcconUng  to  Professor  Muir,  the  glacier  measures 
three  miles  across  the  snout,  or  front,  where  it  breaks 
off  into  the  sea.  Ten  miles  back  it  is  ten  miles  wide, 
and  si.xteen  tributary  glaciers  unite  to  form  chis  one 
great  ice-river.  Professor  Muir  ascended  to  the 
glacier  field  :rom  the  north  side,  anti,  following  its 
etlges  for  six  miles,  climbetl  thehig!  mountain  around 
which  the  first  tributary  debouc'  os  from  that  side. 
He  gives  the  thstance  from  the  snout  of  the  glacier 
to  its  furthest  source  in  the  great  neve,  or  snow-fields, 
as  forty  miles.  Detailed  accounts  of  Professor  Muir's 
canoe  journeys  in  glacier  huul  were  given  in  his 
letters   to   the    San     hTancisco    Bulletin,    and    thev 


n 


13(1 


SOl'THEliX  ALA  SKA. 


3^ 


abound  in  the  most  beautiful  and  poetic  descri])tions 
of  the  scenery.  His  paper  on  "The  Glaciation  of 
the  Arctic  and  Sub-Arctic  Rc*,dons,  v  .ed  by  the 
U.  S.  S.  tomni  in  the  year  icS(Si,"  acci  mpanies  the 
report  of  Captain  C,  I..  Hooper,  U.  S.  R.  '^  ,  published 
by  the  government  j^rinting  office  at  W  a^5hing■ton  in 
1885,  and  contains  I'rofessor  Aluir's  observations  and 
deduclions  upon  tlie  glaciation  of  the  whole  I'acific 
coast  Irom  California  to  the  Arctic. 

No  attempt  has  yet  been  made  to  measure  the  rate 
of  progress  oJ  the  Muir  glacier,  although  Captain 
Carroll  has  sevei-al  times  promised  himself  to  stake 
off  and  niark  points  on  the  main  trunk,  and  note 
their  positions  trom  month  to  month  during  the 
summer.  Mr.  W'illoughby  said  that  the  Indians  tcjkl 
him  that  two  )ears  previously  the  line  of  the  ice  wall 
was  a  half  mile  further  down  the  inlet,  and  that 
in  their  grandfathers'  time  il  extended  as  far  as 
W'illoughby  Island,  h\e  miles  below.  The  okl  mo- 
raine that  forms  the  bar  at  the  mouth  of  the  bay  is 
sufficient  evidence  to  scientists  that,  the  ice  sheet 
covered  the  whole  ba\  within  what  I'rofessor  Muir 
calls  "a  ver\'  sh oit  geologict)!  time  ag\.>."  The 
ilooniah  goat-hunters  told  Mr.  W'illoughby  ihat  the 
first  tril)utary  glacier  connecteil  with  the  Davidson 
glacier  in  Lynn  Caiud,  and  tl^it  they  often  made  the 
journey  across  it  to  the  Chilkat  countr)'.  Kloh-Kutz 
told  Professor  Davidson  that  it  was  a  one  day's 
journey  on  snowsboes  — about  thirty  miles  —  over 
to  this  bay  uf  great  glaciers,  and  thirty  tiays'  journey 
thence,  through  a  region  of  high  mountains  and  snow 
fields,  to  the  ocean  at  the  foot  of  the  Mount  St.  Klias 
Alps. 


f: 


c 


T- 


C 

r 


r. 


mmmmmmmmmmmmmm 


? 


Ji- 


I  s 


/? 


THE  SlTKAy   AncniPELAGO. 


139 


The  vast,  desolate  stretch  of  gray  ice  visible  across 
the  top  of  ''he  serrated  wall  of  ice  that  faced  us  had 
a  stran*;e  fascination,  and  the  crack  of  the  renchng 
ice.  the  crash  of  the  falHng  fragments,  and  a  steady 
undertone  hke  the  boom  of  the  great  Vosemite  Fall, 
added  to  the  inspiration  and  excitement.  There  was 
something,  too,  in  the  consciousness  that  so  few  had 
ever  gazed  upon  the  scene  before  us,  and  there  were 
neither  guides  nor  guitle  books  to  tell  us  which  way 
to  go,  and  what  emotions  to  feel. 

We  left  the  stewards  cutting  ice  from  the  grounded 
bergs  near  the  ship,  and,  putting  off  in  the  lifeboats, 
landed  in  the  ravine  on  the  north  side  of  the  glacier. 
We  scrambled  ovt-r  two  miles  of  sand  and  boulders, 
along  the  steep,  crumbling  banks  of  a  roaring  river, 
until  we  reached  the  arch  under  the  side  of  the 
glacier  from  which  the  muddy  torrent  poured.  Near 
that  point,  on  the  loose  moraine  at  the  side,  there  was 
the  remnant  of  a  buried  forest,  with  the  .iannps  of 
old  cedar-trees  standing  upright  in  groujis.  They 
were  stripped  of  their  bark,  and  cut  off  six  and  ten 
feet  above  the  surface,  and  pieces  of  wood  were 
scattered  all  through  the  debris  of  this  moraine. 
The  disforesting  of  the  shores  of  Glacier  Bay  is  the 
mystery  that  baffles  I'rofessor  Aluir,  as  on  all  this 
densely  wootled  coast,  this  one  bay  lacks  the  thick 
carpet  of  moss  and  the  forests  that  elsewhere  conceal 
the  evidences  of  glacial  action.  I'atches  of  crimson 
ejiilobium  covered  the  ground  in  spots,  and  Hourished 
among  the  boulders  at  the  QiVj:c  of  the  ice  sheet, 
where  only  a  thin  layer  of  tlirt  covers  buried  ice. 

Reaching  the  sloping  side  of  the  ice-field,  we 
mounted,   and   went  down   a  mile  over  the  seamed 


140 


SO  VTIIERN  A  LA  SKA. 


and  ragged  surface  towards  the  broken  ice  of  the 
water  front.  The  ice  was  a  dirty  gray  underfoot, 
but  it  crackled  with  a  pleasant  mid-winter  sound,  and 
the  wind  blew  keen  and  sharp  from  over  the  untrod- 
den miles  of  the  glacier  field.  The  gurgle  and  hollow 
roar  of  the  subterranean  waters  came  from  deep  rifts 
in  the  broken  surface,  and  in  the  centre  and  towards 
the  front  of  the  glaciei,  i  he  ice  was  tossed  and  broken 
like  the  waves  of  an  angry  sea.  The  amateur  photo- 
graphers turned  iheir  cameras  to  right  and  left,  risked 
their  necks  in  the  deep  ra\ines  and  hollows  in  tlie 
ice,  and  climbed  the  surrounding  points  to  get  satis- 
factory views,  livery  one  gathered  a  pocketful  of 
rounded  rocks  and  jiebbles,  and  shreds  of  ancient 
cedar  trees  carried  dow'n  by  the  ice  flood,  and  then, 
liaving  worn  rubber  shoes  and  boots  to  tatters  on  the 
sharp  ice,  and  sunk  many  times  in  the  treacherous 
glacier  mud,  we  reluctantly  obeyed  the  steamer's 
whistle  and  cannon-shot,  and  started  back  to  the 
boats. 

A  nearer  sweep  towards  the  long  ice-cliff  showed 
that  the  line  of  tlie  front  was  broken  into  bays  and 
points,  the  middle  of  the  glacier  jutting  far  out  into 
the  water,  and  the  sides  sweeping  back  in  cvu"vos,  as 
the  cliffs  decreased  in  height,  and  finally  sloped  down 
to  the  level  of  the  side  moraines.  At  points  along 
the  front,  subtei'ranean  rivers  boiled  up,  and,  in  the 
dee])  blue  crevasses,  cascades  rundown  over  icy  beds. 
In  the  full  sunlight  the  front  of  tlie  glacier  was  a  daz- 
zling wall  of  silver  and  snowy  ice,  gleaming  with  all 
the  rainbow  colors,  and  disclosing  fresh  beauties 
as  each  new  crevasse  or  hollow  came  in  sight. 

A  magnificent  sunset  flooded  the  sky  that  night. 


/•/ 


r 

'-> 


/ui 


\ 

•' 

*  1 

1     ''' 

J  ( 

;      -i 

4 

M 

/t 


i 


■i 


THE   SITKAN   AliCmVKLMiO. 


143 


and    filled    every   icy   ravine    with 

)f    th 


lig 


htj 


rose   and    orange 
e    glacier,    as    we 


:s.  At  the  last  view  o 
steamed  away  from  it,  the  whole  brow  was  glorified 
and  transfigured  with  the  fires  of  sunset  ;  the  blue 
and  silverv  i)innacles,  the  white  and  shining  front 
floating  dreamlike  on  a  roseate  and  amber  sea,  and 
the  range  and  circle  of  dull  violet  mountains  lifting 
their  glowing  summits  into  a  sky  flecked  with  crim- 
son and  gold. 

It  was  a  chill,  misty  morning,  a  year  later,  when  the 
watch  again  sighted  "  Scidmore  Island,  one  mile  off 
the  starboard  beam,"  and  its  long,  green  undulating- 
shore  was  visible  through  the  rain.  l\ntering  Muir 
Inlet,  the  A?icon  went  cautiously  through  the  floating 
ice  and  anchored  in  the  curve  of  the  south  end  of  the 
glacier's  front,  but  a  few  hundred  yards  fn^m  a  long- 
shelving  beach  that  would  have  shone  witli  its  golden 
sand  in  sunlight.  There  were  the  same  deep  sound- 
ings near  the  front,  as  on  the  other  side  of  the 
inlet,  but  the  Aticoffs  anchor  was  dropped  nearer  the 
moraine  shore,  where  the  lead  gave  only  twenty-five 
fathoms. 

Under  the  dull  gray  sky  all  dazzling  effects  of 
prismatic  light  were  lost,  but  the  fretted  and  fantastic 
front  showed  lines  and  masses  of  the  purest  white 
and  an  infinite  range  of  blues.  Avalanches  of  crum- 
bling ice  and  great  pieces  of  the  front  were  continually 
falling  with  the  roar  and  crash  of  artillery,  revealing 
new  caverns  and  'ifts  of  deeper  blue  light,  while 
the  spray  dashed  high  and  the  great  waves  rolled 
along  the  icy  wall,  and,  widening  in  their  sweep, 
washed  the  blocks  of  floating  ice  up  on  the  beaches 
at  either  side.     The  ship's  cannon   was  loaded  and 


^'1 


I J 


•^m^'mnmmm 


in 


S(H'riIJ:i!.\    ALASKA. 


fired  twice  point  YAduk  at  the  front  of  the  j^lacier. 
The  report  was  followcc!  b\  a  sceoivl  of  silence,  and 
then  an  echo  came  back  thai  iiilciisified  tlie  first  rin^; 
many  times,  and  was  followeil  1)\-  a  Ion;;,  sharp  roll  as 
the  echo  was  flun;;  from  ca\eni  to  cavern  in  the  ice. 

The  small   boats  landed  us  on  a  beach  strewn   with 
ice  cakes,  and   lints  of  strandril  shrimps  marked  the 


SECl'lON    OK   THK    MUIR   GLACIER    (Tol'.j 


wash  of  the  waves  raised  by  the  falling  ice.  Some 
shrim|)s  two  and  three  inches  long  were  found,  but 
the  most  of  them  were  delicate  littk-  pink  things  not 
an  inch  in  length.  The  crimson  epilobinm  blossoms 
nodded  to  us  from  every  slope  and  hollow^)f  the  long 
lateral  moraine  that  lay  between  the  watei'  and  the 
high  mountain  walls.  Over  sand  and  boulders,  and 
across  a  roaring  stream  that  issued  from  the  side  of 
the  glacier,  the  pilgrims  crept  to  the  foot  of  the  slope, 


TllK   slTKAS    Am  ItU'KLAua. 


145 


and  then  \.\\^  a  long  incline  of  bouklei.s  and  dirtv  ice 
to  a  first  level  where  they  could  look  out  over  the 
frozen  waste  and  across  \.\\v.  broken  front.  Deep 
crevasses  seamed  the  ice  plain  in  every  direction,  as 
ori  the  noith  side  of  the  frozen  river  ;  but,  although 
the  view  i>  not  so  e\tende<l  as  on  ihe  other  side,  the 
level  ot  the  ice  liekl  is  reached  more  easily,  and  it  is  a 
steep  bill  onl)'  a  short  climb  u[)  over  the  burietl 
ice  to  the  top  ol  the  .^lacier.  The  treacherous  gray 
glacier  mud — "  the  mineral  j)aste,and  mountain  meal  " 
of  Prof.  Muir  -  engulfed  one  at  c  \er)' carelesi?  step, 
and  rocks  would  sink  under  one,  aiui  land  even  the 
high-booted  ])i]griins  knee-deep  in  the  fine,  stick\' 
compound.  A  half-mile  from  what  aj)peared  to  be 
the  bank  of  the  fro/en  river,  there  was  clear  solid 
ice  underlying  the  rocks  and  mud,  and  occasionally 
caves  in  this  side  wall  enticed  the  breathless  ones  to 
rest  themselves  in  the  i)ale  shadows  of  the  glacier 
ice.  P'ragments  and  rounded  pebbles  of  red  and 
gray  granite,  limestone,  marble,  schistose  slate, 
porphyry  and  quart/,  were  ])icked  uj)  on  the  way, 
and  many  of  the  bits  of  t|uar:;z  and  marble  were  deeply 
stained  with  iron.  Tlu'  Polish  mining  eiigineer  with 
the  party  assured  us  that  ail  (dacier  liay  was  rich  in 
the  indications  of  a  gre:n  silver  belt,  and  held  up  car- 
bonates, sulphates,  and  sulphurets  to  prove  his  asser- 
tion. 

From  this  south-side  landing  we  easily  approached 
tlie  base  of  the  ice  cliffs  by  f^dlowing  up  the  beach  to 
the  ravine  that  cut  intv)  the  ice  [it  the  edge  of  the 
moraine.  We  got  a  far  better  idea  of  the  height 
and  solidity  of  the  walls  by  standing  like  pigmies  in 
the  shatlow  of  the  lofty  front,  and   looking  up  to  the 


«!■ 


140 


.so !  'Til KilN  A  L  A  SKA. 


grottoes  and  clefts  in  the  cobalt  and  indigo  cliff.  It 
was  dry  and  firm  on  the  beach,  and  the  golden  sand 
was  strewn  wilh  chipping  bergs  of  sapijhire  and 
aqnamjirine  that  iiad  been  swept  asliore  by  the 
spreathng  waves.  'J'hese  huge  i)locks  of  ice  on  the 
beach,  that  had  looked  like  dice  from  the  ship,  were 
found  to  be  thirty  and  fort)  feet  long  and  twent) 
feet  high. 

The  nearer  (me  ajiproached,  the  higher  the  ice  walls 
seemed,  ami  all  along  the  front  there  were  piiniacles 
and  spires  weighing  sevt/ral  tons,  that  semied  on  the 
point  of  to))i)ling  every  moment.  The  great  but- 
tresses of  i(e  that  rose  first  from  the  water  and 
touched  the  moraine  were  as  solidly  white  as  marble, 
veined  and  streaked  with  rocks  and  mud,  but  further 
on,  as  the  pressure  was  greater,  the  color  slowly 
deepened  to  tiiitjuoise  and  sai)phi!e  blues.  The 
crashes  of  falling  ice  were  magnihcent  at  that  i)oint, 
and  in  the  face  of  a  keen  wind  that  blew  over  the  ice- 
field we  sat  on  the  rocks  and  watched  the  wondrous 
scene.  The  gh^om}-  sky  seemed  to  heighten  the 
grandeur,  and  the  billows  of  gray  mist,  jjouring  over 
the  mountains  on  either  side,  intensified  the  sense  of 
awe  and  mystery.  The  tide  was  running  out  all  of 
the  afternoon  hours  that  we  spent  there,  and  the 
avalanches  of  ice  were  larger  and  more  frequent  all 
of  the  time.  When  the  anchor  was  lifted,  the  ship 
took  a  great  sweep  up  nearer  to  the  glacier's  front, 
and  as  we  steamed  away  there  were  two  grand 
crashes,  and  great  sections  of  the  front  fell  off  with 
deafening  roars  mto  the  water.  W'e  steamed  slowly 
down  the  inlet,  ami  out  into  Glacier  Bay,  stopping, 
backing,  and  going  at  half  speed  to  avoid  the  floating 


W7 


jf(i-> 


I 

: 


(H- 


TllK   .S77AMA   ARVlHrKLAdO. 


141) 


ice  all  around  us,  that  occasionally  was  ground  and 
crunched  up  by  the  paddle-wheels  with  a  most  un- 
comfortable sound.  With  each  thump  from  the  ice, 
and  the  recurrence  of  tlie  noise  in  the  paddle-box, 
and  then  the  sight  of  some  red  slats  floating  off  on 
the  wpter,  Dick  Willoughby's  concern  was  remem- 
bered ;  and  the  advantages  of  the  screw  propeller, 
and  the  merits  of  the  favorite  and  original  Idaho, 
were  appreciated. 

W'hile  we  cruised  away  in  the  mist  and  twilight, 
the  children,  who  never  could  be  made  to  keep  ordi- 
nary bedtime  in  that  latitude,  celebrated  the  birthday 
of  one  of  their  iuiml)er  with  high  re\el.  While  they 
danced  around  the  cake  on  the  cabin  table,  and  blew 
out  the  eight  candles  one  by  one  \vit!i  an  accompany- 
ing wish,  the  last  boy  wisheil  that  the  happy  youngster 
might  "celebrate  many  more  birthdavs  in  Glacier 
I^ay,"  and  the  elders  ap})lau(led  h?n. 

Aftei  the  /dnho  had  made  its  first  ^.dsit  to  the 
Muir  Glacier,  and  returned  Dick  Willoughby  to  his 
Hooniah  home  and  his  strawberry  farm,  wi;  had  a 
seven  hours'  enforced  anchoiage.  on  the  succeeding 
day,  in  a  narrow  ftortl  on  the  north  end  of  Chicagoff 
Island,  which  that  same  Willoughby  !iad  described 
as  an  unkm)wn  channel,  "a  hole  in  the  mountain," 
and  a  short  cut  to  the  (^pcn  ocean,  that  lie  had  trav- 
elled many  times  hunself.  l^'ollowing  up  his  forty- 
fathom  channel,  the  lead  marked  shoaling  waters,  and 
before  we  knew  il  the  Idaho  ran  her  nose  on  a 
sloping  bank,  and  stayed  there  until  the  returning 
tide  floated  her  off. 

There  had  not  been  a  canoe  in  sight,  nor  a  sign  of 
life  along  the  shores  all  that  morning,  but  the  ship's 


150 


SOUTHERN  A  LA  SKA. 


officers  had  hardly  settled  the  fact  that  they  were 
hard  aground  before  several  cnoes  were  seen  in  the 
wake,  and  the  gangway  was  su  -ounded  with  bargdin- 
ing  Hooniahs,  who  held  up  furs,  baskets,  and  trophies 
for  us  to  buy.  More  and  more  of  them  canie  pad- 
dling down  the  narrow  lane  of  emerald  water,  and 
family  groups  in  ixi]  blankets  were  soon  at  home 
around  blazing  camp  hrcs  on  the  narrow  ledges  of 
the  shore,  and  added  greatly  to  the  picturesquoness 
of  the  scene.  C)i  all  the  little  fiords  we  had  been 
into,  this  one  was  the  most  beautiful,  and  even  Naha 
Bay  cannot  surjxiss  it.  The  narrow  channel  has 
steep,  wooded  hills  on  either  side,  and  a  rugged, 
snow-covered  mountain  stands  sentry  at  the  head 
of  the  fiord,  and  the  clear,  green  water  was  so  still 
that  every  tree  and  twig  was  clearly  reflected;  the 
ship  rested  double,  and  th^^  breasts  of  the  soaring 
eagles  were  mirrored  in  all  the  shadings  of  their 
plumage.  The  silence  was  profound,  and  every  voice 
or  sound  on  deck  was  echoed  from  the  mountains, 
and  could  be  lieard  for  a  long  distance  up  the  inlet. 
Had  it  not  been  for  the  Hooniah  canoes  following  so 
promptly,  we  might  have  supposed  ourselves  ex- 
plorers, who  had  penetrated  into  some  enchanted 
region,  or  dreamers  who  were  seeing  this  beauti- 
ful valley  in  a  strange  sleej).  It  was  exploration  to 
the  extent  that  all  our  course  up  tlie  inlet  was  across 
the  dry  land  of  all  the  charts  then  published,  and  the 
IdaJio  was  aground  in  the  woods  according  to  the 
authorized  ma|)s. 

This  Idaho  Iniet,  as  it  is  now  |)Ut  down,  is  the 
sportsman's  long- sought  paradise.  The  stewards,  who 
went   ashore    nith   the    tank-boa^>  for    fre.sh   water. 


iiA 


^^>' 


THE   SliKAS    Ai:(  HII'KJ.AdO. 


151 


i 


startled  seven  deer  as  they  pushed  their  way  to  the 
foot  of  a  cascade,  and  the  young  men  who  went  off  in 
an  Indian  canoe  caught  thirteen  large  sahnon  with 
their  inexperieneed  spearing.  Mr.  Wallace,  the  Hist 
(ifficer,  took  a  pai-ty  off  in  the  ship's  small  bouts,  and 
we  swept  gayly  up  the  inlet,  over  waUrs  where  the 
salmon  and  flounders  could  l)e  seen  darting  in  schools 
through  the  water  and  just  escaping  the  sti'okes  of 
the  oar.  At  the  mouth  of  the  creek  at  the  head  of 
the  inlet,  the  fn.'shening  current  was  alive  with  fish, 
and  some  ol  the  energetic  ones  landed  there,  and, 
pushing  ahead  for  exploration,  were  sooi^,  lo.st  to  sight 
in  the  high  grass  and  the  underbrush  that  fringed  the 
forest.  It  began  tf)  lain  about  that  tinu',  and  a  drip- 
ping group  remained  b\  the  Inoats,  watching  the  ram- 
bow  fish  playing  i.i  thr  waters,  and  enjoying  the  dry 
Scotch  humor  of  the  offu-cr,  who  had  led  us  otf  on 
this  water  picnic.  Clouds  rolled  o\er  our  snow-capped 
mountain  and  liluri'cd  the  landscape,  and  after  an 
hour  of  (juietly  sitting  in  the  rain.  e\"en  the  amphibi- 
ous Scot  began  to  wish,  too,  that  the  wanderers  would 
return,  kst  the  falling  tide  should  leave  us  on  the 
wrong  side  of  the  shallows  at  the  mouth  of  the  creek. 
As  he  took  a  less  himiorous  \icw  ot  the  situation,  all 
the  rest  joined  in  the  --train  and  began  to  bciatc  the 
Alaska  climate  with  its  constant  downpour.  Some 
one  was  impelled  in  ask  tin-  genial  Scotchman  if  it 
was  really  true  that  tiie  summit  ^A  Hen  Nevis  is  never 
seen  oftener  tli:in  twice  a  veai.  lie  nearly  u})set  the 
boat  to  refute  thai  slander,  and  his  rmj)hatic  "  No  !  " 
may  be  still  ringing  and  eclioini;  around  the  north 
end  of  Chicagoff  Island. 

After  the  first  officer  had  returui-d  Id.-,  boatloads  of 


mmmm 


l.ri 


SOirniEliN  ALASKA. 


damj)  but  enthusiastic  passengers  to  the  ship,  the 
stories  of  fish,  and  boasts  of  the  great  bear-tracl^s 
seen  on  shore,  disturbed  the  tranquillity  of  the  anchor- 
age. The  captain  o{  the  shij)  took  his  rifle  and  was 
rowed  away  to  shallow  waters,  where  he  shot  a  salmon, 
waded  in,  and  threw  it  ashore.  While  wandering  along 
alter  the  huge  bear-tracks,  that  were  twelve  inches 
long  by  affidavit  measure,  he  saw  an  eagle  flying  off 
with. his  salmon,  and  another  fine  shot  laid  the  bird  of 
freedom  low.  When  the  captain  returned  to  the  ship 
he  threw  the  eagle  and  the  salmon  on  deck,  and  at 
the  size  of  the  former  every  one  marvelled.  The  out- 
spread wings  measured  the  traditional  six  feet  from  tip 
to  tip,  and  the  beak,  the  claws,  and  the  stiff  feathers 
were  rapidly  seized  upon  as  trophies  and  souvenirs 
of  the  day.  A  broad,  double  rainbow  arched  over  us 
as  we  left  the  lovely  niche  between  the  mountains  in 
the  evening,  and  then  we  swept  back  to  Icy  Straits 
and  started  out  to  the  open  ocean,  and  down  the 
coast  to  Sitka,  having  a  glimpse,  on  the  way,  of  the 
vast  glacier  at  the  head  of  Taylor  Bay,  that  Van- 
couver and  his  men  visited  while  his  ships  lay  at 
anchor  in  Port  Althorp,  just  west  of  our  Idaho  Inlet. 


THE   SITKAN  AmillPELAaO. 


ir)3 


CIIAITKR    XI. 


SfTKA 


THE    CASTLE    AM)    THE    (}REEK    CIirKCH. 


AT    SIX    o'clock    in    the    mornin-   the    water  lay 
^   *^     still  and  motionless  as  we  rounded  the  poin' 
from    which    Mount    lulgecombe  lifts   its   hazy  blue 
slopes,  and    threaded   our   way   between    clearly   re- 
flected islands  into  this  beautiful  harbor,  which  is  the 
most  northern  on  the  I'acific  Coast.     In  the  mirror 
of  calm   waters  the  town   lay  in  shimmerin-  reflec- 
tions, and  the  wooded  side  of  Mount  Verstovaia  that 
rises  sentinel  over   Sitka,   was   reflected  as   a 'dark 
green  pyramid  that  sloudy  receded  and  shortened  as 
the  ship   neared   the   shore.       By  old   traditions   the 
ravens  always  gather  on  the  gilded  cross  on  th-  dome 
of  the  Greek  church  when  a  ship  is  in  sight,  and  one 
lone,   early  rise'-   flapped    his   big    black    wings   and 
croaked  the  signal   before  the  ship's  cannon  started 
the  echoes.     A  steam  launch   put  out  cjuickly  from 
the  man-o/-war  Ac/^r„,s  to  carry  the  mail  bags  to  that 
ship,  and  a  sleepy  postmaster  came  down  to  look  after 
his  consignments.    There  were  signs  of  life  in  the  In- 
dian A'lllage.  or  mm/ien,,  further  up  shore,  and  one  by 
one  the  natives  assembled  on  the  wharf  with  their  ba.s- 
kets  and  bracelets  for  sale,  or,  u.adering  down  with 
the  blankets  of  the  couch  wrapped  about  them,  and 
lying  face   downward  with   their    heads  propped   on 


!"-▼ 


154 


sr^"mi:i:.\  Alaska. 


their  hands,  yawned  and  studied  the  scene.  They 
sprawled  there  like  seals,  and  some  of  the  members  of 
this  leisure  class  remained  on  the  wharf  for  hours  and 
for  nearly  all  day  without  stinin^i;. 

The  queer  and  out-of-the-wuy  capital  of  oui'  latest 
Territory  seemed  quite  a  .nelropolis  after  the  un- 
broken wilderness  \vc -had  been  jfjurneyiiii^'  throut^h, 
and  the  rambling  collection  of  weather-beaten  and 
moss-covered  buildings  that  have  survived  fiom  Rus- 
sian days,  and  the  government  buildings,  in  their  coats 
of  yejlow-bmwn  paint,  smote  us  with  a  sense  of 
urban  vastness  and  importance.  At  a  first  look 
Sitka  wears  the  air  and  dignity  of  a  town  with  a  his- 
tory, and  can  reflect  upon  the  bi-illi;int  good  old  days 
of  Russian  rule,  to  which  fifteen  years  of  American 
occupancy  hnve  only  given  more  lustre  by  contrast. 
It  is  a  straggling,  jK'aeeful  sort  of  a  town,  edging 
along  shore  at  the  foot  of  high  mountains,  and  shel- 
tered  from  the  surge  and  turmoil  of  the  ocean  by 
a  sea-wall  of  rock)-,  pine-covered  islands.  The  moss 
has  grown  greener  and  thicker  on  the  roofs  of  the 
solid  old  wooden  houses  that  are  relics  of  Russian 
days,  the  paint  has  worn  thinner  everywhere,  and 
a  few  more  houses  tumbling  into  ruins  complete 
the  scenes  of  picturesque  decay.  Twenty  years  ago 
there  were  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  buildings  in 
the  town  proper,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  a  dozen  have  been 
erected  since.  The  esthetic  soul  can  rexel  in  the 
cool,  quiet  tones  of  weather-worn  and  lichen-stained 
walls,  and  never  be  vexed  with  the  sight  of  raw  boards, 
shingles,  and  shavings  in  this  far  northern  capital.  A 
gravelled  road  leads  straight  from  the  wharf  to  the 
front  of  the  Greek  church,  the  boa'xl  walk  beside  it 


I 


"'-\l^w — '■ — 


r. 


..'i      ft      .  I'l 


/.r^ 


1 


^ 


1 


\      ': 


THK  slTh'.W    AH(lHI'i:LA<iO. 


l.')7 


painted  with  lines  of  whitt.-  nn  cither  e(l;2;e,  to  '^uide 
the  wayfarer's  steps  on  the  {iitch-dark  ni^^ht.s,  that  set 
in  so  early  and  last  so  lon^  durinj;  the  winter  season. 
The  barracks,  the  custon)  liouse  and  the  gov- 
ernor's castle  form  a  group  of  public  buildings  on 
the  right  of  the  landing-wharf,  and  the  small  battery 
at  the  foot  of  the  castle  terrace  is  (juite  imposing. 
The  castle  is  a  heavy,  plain,  square  building,  crowning 
a  rocky  headland  that  rises  precipitously  from  the 
water  on  three  sides,  and  tui'ns  a  bold  embankment 
to  the  town  on  the  other.  According  to  Captain 
Meade,  this  eminence  was  called  Katalan's  i\ock  by 
the  early  Russian  settlers,  in  memory  of  the  chief 
who  lived  on  it,  and  the  governors  made  it  a  })er{ect 
fortress,  with  batteries  and  outer  defences  and  sentries 
at  all  the  a})proaches.  This  colonial  castle  is  in  lati- 
tude only  17'  north  of  Queen  Victoria's  smnmerhome 
at  Balmoral.  Two  l)iiildings  have  crowned  Katalan's 
Rock  before  tlie  pr(.'sent  one,  the  first  rude  block- 
house being  destroyed  by  fire,  and  the  second  one 
by  an  earthquake.  The  castle  is  one  hundred  anrl 
forty  feet  long  and  seventy  feet  wide,  built  of  heavy 
cedar  logs,  while  C(^pper  bolts  i)ierce  the  walls  at 
points,  and  are  riveted  to  the  rock  to  jiold  it  fast 
in  the  event  of  another  earthquake.  The  Russian 
governors  oi  the  colony  resided  in  the  castle,  and 
many  traditions  of  social  splendor  hang  to  this  forlorn 
and  abandoned  old  building.  The  Russian  u-overnors 
were  usually  chosen  from  the  higher  ranks  of  the 
naval  service  and  of  noble  families  at  home.  These 
captain-counts,  barons,  and  princes  deputed  to  rule 
the  colony  maintained  a  miniature  court  around  them, 
and  lived  and  entertained  handsomely.     Lutke,  Sir 


158 


^0/■77//';7^.V   ALASKA. 


lulward  Hclchcr,  Sir  George  Simpson,  and  othef 
voyagers  of  the  early  part  of  tliis  century,  give 
charming  pictures  of  the  social  life  at  Sitka.  State 
dinners  were  given  by  the  governor  every  Sunday, 
and  a  round  of  balls  and  gayeties  made  a  visitor's  stay 
all  too  pleasant. 

Baron  Wrangell's  wife  was  the  first  chatelaine 
of  the  castle  who  left  a  social  fame.  She  was 
succeeded  in  hei  pleasant  rule  by  the  wife  of  Gov- 
ernor Kuprcanoff,  who  accom[)anied  her  husband  to 
Sitka  in  1835,  crossing  Siberia  on  hijrseback  to 
Behring  Sea.  It  was  Madame  Kuprcanoff  who  en- 
tertained Captain  J^elcher,  and  after  a  line  of  many 
charming  women  there  came  the  second  wife  of 
Prince  Maksoutoff,  a  beautiful  chatelaine  who  made 
the  castle  the  abode  of  a  gracious  hospitality,  and  left 
many  social  traditions  to  attest  her  tact  and  charm. 
Society  was  more  democratic  in  her  days  than  it  has 
been  at  any  time  since,  and  the  noble  Russian  hostess 
overlooked  rank  and  class,  and  welcomed  all  to  the 
castle  on  an  equality.  The  admiral  of  the  fleet  and 
the  pilot  were  on  the  same  social  plane  while  under 
the  governor's  roof,  and  at  a  ball  the  governor  made 
it  his  duty  to  lead  out  every  lady,  and  the  princess 
danced  with  every  one  who  solicited  the  honor,  no 
matter  how  humble  his  station.  Caviare  and  strong 
punches  marked  every  banquet  board,  and  at  the  be- 
ginning of  a  ball  the  ladies  were  first  invited  out  by 
themselves  to  partake  of  strong  and  pungent  appe- 
tizers, and  then  the  gentlemen  gathered  around  the 
side  tables  and  took  their  tonics,  A  big  brass 
samovar  was  always  boiling  in  the  drawing-room,  and 
day  or  night  a  glass  of  the  choicest  caravan  tea  was 


THE  SITKAX  AUCIIIPKLAnn. 


mw 


offered  to  visitors.  Some  beautiful  samovars  were 
brought  out  from  Russia  by  the  families  of  the  higher 
officers,  and  after  the  brass  foundry  was  established, 
they  were  manufactured  at  Sitka.  Some  of  tlieseold 
Sitka  samovars  are  still  to  be  found  by  the  curio- 
hunter.'^,  and,  as  they  grow  rarer,  they  are  the  more 
highly  prized. 

The  governors  brought  all  their  household  goods 
with  them  from  Russia;  and  surrounded  themselves 
with  comfort  and  lu.xury.  The  castle  was  richly 
furnished,  the  walls  of  the  drawing-room  were 
lined  with  mirrors,  and  its  interior  appointments 
were  all  that  Muscovite  ideas  could  suggest.  When 
it  was  turned  over  to  the  United  States  as  govern- 
ment }jroperty  seventeen  years  ago,  the  castle  was 
well  furnished  and  in  perfect  condition,  hut  after  the 
troops  left,  it  was  neglected  like  everything  else,  and 
has  been  stripped,  despoiled,  and  defaced.  livery  porta- 
ble thing  has  been  carried  off,  the  curiously  wrought 
brass  chandeliers,  the  queer  knobs  and  branching- 
hinges  on  the  doors,  and  all  but  the  massive  porcelain 
stoves  in  the  corners  of  the  large  apartments.  The 
lantern,  and  even  the  reflector,  that  used  to  send  bea- 
cons to  the  mariner  from  the  castle  tower,  have  gone, 
and  the  place  is  little  better  than  a  ruin.  The  hall 
where  the  governors  received  and  entertained  the  In- 
dian  chiefs  is  a  rul)bish  hole  ;  of  the  carved  railing  that 
fenced  off  a  little  boudoir  in  the  great  drawing-room, 
not  a  vestige  remains  ;  ami  not  a  relic  is  left  of  the 
old  billiard-room  to  prove  that  it  ever  existed. 

The  signal  officer  has  rescued  two  rooms  on  the 
ground  floor  for  his  use,  but  otherwise  the  only 
tenant   of   the  castle  is  the  irhost  of  a   beautiful    Rus- 


KiO 


sorriii:u\  Alaska. 


siaii,  whose  sad  siory  is  closely  modelled  on  that  of 
the  Jiride  of  Lanimermoor.  She  haunts  the  drawing- 
room,  the  northwest  chamber,  where  she  was  mur- 
dered, and  pates  the  governor's  cabinet,  where  the 
swish  of  her  ghostly  wedding-gown  chills  every  listen- 
er's blood.  Twice  a  year  she  walks  unceasingly  and 
wrings  her  jewelled  hands. 

At  Kaster  time  she  wanders  with  sorrowful  mien 
from  room  to  room,  .ind  leaves  a  faint  perfume  as  of 
wild  roses  where  she  passes.  Innumerable  young 
officers  from  the  mcn-ol-war  have  nerved  up  their 
spirits  and  gone  to  spend  a  solitary  night  in  the 
castle,  but  ikjiio  have  yet  held  authentic  converse 
wilh  the  beautiful  s])irit,  :ind  learned  the  true  story  of 
her  unresting  sorrow.  Uy  tradition,  the  lady  in  black 
was  the  daughter  of  n\)v  of  the  old  governors.  On 
her  wedding  night  she  disappeared  from  the  ball-room 
in  the  midst  of  the  festivities,  and  after  long  search 
was  fouiul  dead  in  one  of  the  small  drawing-rooms. 
Being  forced  to  marry  against  her  will,  one  belief 
was  that  she  voluntarily  took  [)oison,  while  another 
version  ascribes  the  deed  to  an  unhai)py  lover;  while, 
altogether,  the  tale  cf  this  Lucia  of  the  northwest 
isles  gives  just  the  touch  of  sentimental  interest  to 
this  castle  of  the  Russian  governors.  Hie  Russian 
residents  cannot  identify  this  ghost  with  any  mem- 
ber of  the  governors'  families,  and  say  that  the  whole 
thing  has  been  concocted  within  a  few  years  to  keep 
sailors  and  marauders  away  at  night,  and  to  en^^ertain 
the  occasional  tourist. 

The  room  is  ])ointed  out  in  the  castle  that  was 
occupied  by  Secretary  Seward  during  his  visit,  and 
the  same  guest-chamber  has  an  additional  interest  in 


I 


Tin:   .s/7A'.LV    Mit  Ull'ELMHi. 


1(11 


I   i 


the  memory  of  Latly  Kranklin's  visit.  It  is  possible 
that  vvitli  the  arrival  of  a  territorial  {governor  the 
eastle  may  a;^aia  beeoiiie  an  official  roitlenee  ;  and  if 
repaired  and  restored  to  its  ori^^inal  eomlition,  it  eould 
be  matle  quite  a  i)leasant  jjlace. 

"Fhc  Custom  House  buildiiiL;  also  shelters  the  post- 
master, whose  office,  not  beiu.L;  a  salaried  one,  does 
not  offer  great  temptations  to  any  aspirinj;-  eiti/ens  as 
yet.  I  lis  com|)ensation  was  a  little  o\er  one  hundred 
dollars  for  the  last  year,  and  by  the  quarterly 
accounts,  whicl\  all  the  Alaska  postmasters  are  dilatory 
about  sendini;'  to  tin;  dep;irtmenl,  the  Sitka  post- 
oflice  has  onlv  about  tlu;  same  amount  of  business 
as  the  Juneau  and  W'rangell  offices. 

A  detachment  of  marines  from  the  man-of-war  in 
the  harbor  was  quartervul  in  the  old  barracks  at  the 
o])lK)site  side  of  the  steps  leading'  d(»wn  from  the  castle 
terrace.  livery  morning;  while  we  were  there,  about 
eif;iit  men  went  throu.L;li  ,uuanl  mourit  and  inspection 
with  as  much  militar\'  prcMsion  and  form  as  if  a  com- 
])an\  or  rej;iment  were  deploying  on  the  paraile  grount!. 
The  houses  that  were  used  for  officers' quarters  during 
the  time  that  a  garrison  was  maintained  were  burned 
by  the  Indians,  after  the  soldiers  were  witlulrawn,  and 
there  is  a  blank  on  that  side  of  the  green  quadrangle. 
The  Indian  \illage  is  reached  throng'  a  gate  in  the 
stockade  fence  at  one  side  of  the  parade  ground,  and 
in  the  .^ Russian  davs  the  gate  was  closed  e\ery  night, 
and  the  Indians  obliged  to  remain  outside  until  morn- 
ing. Under  United  States  rule  they  have  been  per- 
mitted to  roam  as  they  pleased,  and  during  the  time  be- 
tween the  withdrawal  of  the  troops  and  the  arrival  of  a 
naval  ship,  they  held  the  inhabitants  at  their  mercy. 


U'2 


so  U  Til  EH  N  A  L  A  s K  A. 


The  buildings  on  the  main  street  are  all  heavy  log 
houses,  some  of  them  clapboarde<.i  over,  and  a  few  of 
them  whitewashed,  but  deca\  has  seized  upon  many, 
and  their  roofs  are  sinking  under  the  weight  of  moss. 
Both  at  the  Northwest  Trading  Com))an3  's  store  (.>n 
the  wharf,  and  in  the  lan;e,  ramblinir  stores  on  this 


illV.   CKIKK   (lIL-KvU    AT    srrKA. 


\        t 


street,  tuere  \/'ere  curios  by  the  roomful,  and  every- 
thing from  canoes  to  nose  rings  were  to  be  seen, 
Tliough  the  prices  vvere  higher,  as  befits  a  capital, 
the  Sitka  traders  had  the  most  tempting  arrays  of 
carved  and  painted  woodwork,  and  baskets,  and 
bracelets  in  endless  .lesigns. 

At  the  end  of  the  main  street,  fronting  on  the  small 
square  or  court,  stands  the  Russian  Orthodox  Church 


J    i-.'' 


THE   SITKAN   ARCHIPELAGO. 


11)3 


of  St.  Micliacl.  It  lias  the  green  roof,  the  bulging 
spire,  the  fine  clock,  and  the  chime  of  bells,  that  might 
distinguish  any  shrine  in  Moscow.  In  these  days  of 
its  decadence,  much  of  the  glor\'  has  been  stripped 
from  the  Sitka  church,  and  the  faded  vvulls  and  roof, 
almost  destitute  of  paint,  tell  a  sad  tale.  It  was  once 
a  cathedral,  presided  over  by  a  resident  bishop,  and 
when  dedicated  in  1844,  the  venerable  Ivan  Venian- 
imoff,  Metropolite  of  M<-<cow,  who  had  labored  for 
years  as  priest  and  bishoj)  at  Ounalaska  and  Sitka, 
sent  richest  vestments,  plate,  and  altar  furnishings  to 
this  church.  Since  the  purchase  of  Alaska  by  the 
United  States,  the  richer  and  better  class  of  Russians 
have  left,  and  there  are  only  three  families  of  pure  Rus- 
sian bloo^!  to  worship  in  the  church.  Of  the  Creoles, 
or  half-breeds,  the  emancipated  serfs,  and  the  con- 
verted natives,  who  once  crowded  the  church  on  Sun- 
days and  saints'  days,  not  a  third  remain,  and  decreas- 
ing numbers  bow  before  the  altar  of  St,  Michael's 
each  year. 

The  Russian  government,  in  its  protectorate  over 
tliC  Greek  church,  assumes  the  expenses  of  the 
churches  at  Sitka,  Ounalaska,  and  Kodiak,  and  about 
550,000  are  expoiuled  annually  for  their  support. 
With  the  diminishing  congregations,  it  is  merely  a 
question  of  time  when  the  Alaska  priests  will  be 
recalled,  as  the  abandonment  of  the  Russian  chapel 
in  New  York  is  significant  of  the  coming  change. 

After  the  transfer  of  the  territory,  the  Russian 
bishop  moved  his  residence  to  San  I'rancisco,  and, 
taking  charge  of  the  chapel  there,  made  annual  visits 
to  the  Sitka,  Kodiak,  and  Ounalaska  churches.  The 
last  incumbent  of  the  office,  Bishop  Nestor,  was  lost 


164 


SOCTHKIty   ALA^HKA. 


overboard  while  returning  from  OunalavS^ka  to  San 
Francisco  in   May,  1883,  and  at  Moscow  me  has 

been  found  willing  to  be  sent  out  to  th^s  uiocese. 
Father  Mitropolski.  now  in  chargce  with  one  iissistant, 
was  formerly  .it  the  Ko('iak  ehurch. 

The  exterioi  of  the  churrh  is  not  impojisiiiiBg,  im 
the  ])amt  has  worn  AV\d  flaketl  otf  the  walls,  and  the 
panelled  picture  of  St.  Michael  over  the  doorway  is 
dim  and  faded.  The  chime  6i  six  sweet-toned  bells 
in  the  tower  were  sent  from  Moscow  as  a  gift,  and 
they  retain  their  clear  and  vibrant  tones,  and  still  ring 
out  the  hours.  Our  watches,  that  had  hi  mi  keeping 
Astoria  or  ship's  time,  were  forty-five  minut<'s  alicad 
of  the  true  local  time  mdicated  by  the  ornamental 
dial  of  the  church  clock,  and  for  tlw:  lirirt  time  we 
realized  that  the  ship  had  veered  to  the  westward 
considerably  while  apparently  going  du-"  noriii.  A 
more  serious  diiference  of  time  had  to  he  contended 
with  at  the  time  of  the  transfer,  as  the  Russian  Sab- 
bath, which  came  eastward  from  Moscow,  did  not 
correspond  to  the  same  day  of  the  week  in  our 
calendar  tni\elling  westward.  It  took  (official  nego- 
tiations to  settle  this  difference  and  set  aside  the  old 
Julian  calendar. 

The  interior  of  the  cruciform  church  is  richly  dec- 
orated in  white  and  gold.  In  either  transept  are  side 
altars,  and  the  main  altar  is  re;t,ched  tlirough  a  pair  of 
open-work  bronze  doors  set  wiih  silver  images  of  the 
saints.  In  this  inner  sanctuary  no  woman  is  allowed 
to  tread,  and  on  the  smaller  altars  there  the  richest 
treasures  of  the  chur'-h  are  kept.  Over  the  bronze 
doors  is  a  large  picture  of  the  Last  Suj^per,  the  faces 
painted  on  ivory,  and  trie  figures  draped  in  robes  of 


THE   SIT  KAN   AUrniPELAGO. 


!().■) 


silver.  On  either  side  are  large  paintings  of  the  saints, 
covered  with  robes  ajid  draperies  of  the  same  beaten 
silver,  dm\  the  halos,  siii-roundin,;'  their  lieails,  of  gold 
and  silver  .-^et  with  bi'illiaiU.s.  ilea\)  ehandelieis  and 
silver  kunph  hang  troni  tlu-  ceiling,  and  tail  eandte- 
stieks    and    eensers    are  i)efore    tlie    [)ietured  saints. 


INIl  l;|oK    111      Mil'    ..KMK    1   II!    Ki   II      \l     >IIKA. 


There  is  a  small  i.ha[)e!  in  the  nortli  transept,  where 
services  are  liel(]  \n  winter,  and  on  one  of  the  pan- 
els of  the  altar  there  is  :\^^  e\(|nisi!e  i)aintin  of  the 
Madonna.  The  sweet  H\/antine  face  is  painted  on 
i\or\,  and  a  silver  draper\'  is  wrapfied  dhout  the  liead 
and  slKAilders.  St.  Micliael,  .St.  Xiehol;!^.  and  tlie 
ghjrious  eompanv  of  apostles  and  angels  on  the  same 
altars  are  robed  in  silver  -ai  nient^  with  jewelled  ha- 


11)6 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


los.  This  chapel  and  the  whole  church  still  wore 
the  lavish  Easter  decorations  of  wreaths,  festoons, 
evergreen  trees,  and  streamers  of  bright  ribbons,  both 
July  weeks  that  I  visited  it. 

On  the  Sunday  morning  that  the  Idaho  lay  at  the 
Sitka  wharf  we  all  attended  morning  service  at  the 
church,  and  were  seated  on  benches  at  one  side  while 
the  congregation  stood  throughout  the  long  service, 
which  was  chanted  by  a  male  chorus  concealed  behind 
a  carved  screen  near  the  altar.  The  men  stood  on 
one  side  of  the  church,  and  the  women  on  the  other, 
and  at  places  in  tlic  service  they  knelt  and  prostrated 
themselves  until  their  foreheads  touched  the  floor,  and 
made  the  sign  of  the  cross  constantly.  One  aged  man 
especially  interested  me  with  the  devout  manner  in 
which  he  bowed  and  continually  made  the  sign  of  the 
cross  during  tlie  service.  He  was  poorly  clad,  and  in 
appearance  he  was  one  of  Tourgenieff's  serfs  to  the 
life,  as  one  pictures  them  from  the  pages  of  his  novels. 

On  the  following  Monday  —  July  i6,  1883  —  \vc 
heard  the  church  bells  chiming  in  full  chorus  at  an 
unwonted  hour  in  the  morning,  and,  iiurrying  to  the 
square,  we  found  that  the  Czar's  manifesto  was  to  be 
read,  and  a  grand  Te  Deum  sung  in  honor  of  the 
coronati(jn  of  Alexander  III.  /Although  the  Ruler  of 
Moly  Russia  had  donned  his  'mpenal  coronet  weeks 
before,  the  official  papers  notifying  the  priest  of  that 
event  only  came  uj)  with  the  mails  of  our  steamer. 
The  usual  morning  service  was  elaborated  in  manv 
ways.  The  choir  of  male  voitx^s  chanted  all  the  Te 
Deums  appointed  for  such  special  occasions,  the 
priest  wore  his  most  sumptuous  vestments  of  cloth 
of  gold  and  cloth  of  silver,  the  incense  was  wafted 


f 


i 


THK   s  I J  K  A  y   A  Ji  (  11 1 P  EL  A  G  0, 


1  ♦;'.( 


in  clouds  tlirougb  the  wreathed  and  garlanded  church, 
and  tlic  kneeling  congregation  rose  one  by  one  and 
went  forward  to  kiss  the  richly-jewelled  cross  that 
the  priest  extended  towards  them.  A\.  the  close,  a 
joyous  jH.'al  rang  out  from  the  six  sweet-toned  bells 
in  the  steeple,  and  the  devout  souls  went  about  the 
church  kneeling  and  crossing  themselves  before  the 
altars,  and  kissing  the  silver  and  ivory  bas-relief 
images  of  the  saints.  Having  doffed  his  splendid 
robes  and  his  purple  velvet  cap,  Father  Mitropolski 
came  forth  and  greeted  his  visitors,  and  had  his 
assistant  bring  out  some  of  the  ancient  treasures 
and  vestments  to  show  us.  There  were  jewelled 
crosses,  chalices  of  silver  and  gold,  jewelled  caskets, 
and  quaint  illuminated  books  in  precious  covers.  The 
bishop's  cap  sh.own  us  was  a  tall,  conical  structure 
lined  with  satin,  and  covered  with  pearls,  amethysts, 
rubies,  and  enamelled  medallions  in  filigree  settings. 
The  crowns  held  over  the  heads  of  the  bride  .and 
grcH)m  during  the  marriage  service  were  fine  pieces  of 
Ivussian  workmanship,  and  the  silver  basin  for  holy 
water  was  well  executed.  Rich  vestments  of  old  dam- 
ask, of  heavy  velvets  embroideied  with  bullion  and 
set  with  small  stones,  and  robes  of  cloth  of  gold  and 
cloth  of  silver,  were  displayed,  together  with  the  dra- 
l)eries  used  t>n  the  altar  on  various  occasions,  and  the 
embroidered  pall  thrown  over  the  cofhn  at  funeral 
services.  The  choicest  of  the  church  treasures, 
including  an  enamelled  cross  set  with  diamonds  and 
fine  stones,  and  a  book  of  the  Scriptures  with  an 
elaborately  wrought  silver  cover  weighing  twenty- 
seven  i^ounds.  were  taken  to  the  San  P'rancisco 
church  after  the  tran.sfer.     The   bishop's  robes  and 


170 


SO  nil  KI!  X  A  LAS  KA. 


special  belonginj^s  were  taken  there  also,  and  after 
Bishop  Nestor's  death  the  richest  of  them  were  sent 
back  to  Russia.  In  1869  the  church  was  robbed  of 
much  of  its  plate  and  treasures,  by  some  dischari^ed 
soldiers  of  the  garrison,  it  was  thought,  and  only  a 
few  of  the  valuables  wx're  recovered. 

During-  our  first  stay  the  assistant  priest  found  a 
chest  of  old  bronze  medals,  crosses,  and  enamelled 
triptychs  in  the  garret  of  the  church,  and  tlie  visitors 
contributed  well  to  the  jjoor  fund  in  order  to  obtain 
these  relics.  It  was  certified  that  all  the  small 
crosses  and  medals  had  licen  blessed  at  Moscow 
before  being  sent  out  to  the  colony,  and  tliese  ikons 
or  images  were  given  to  the  soldiers  and  others  on 
their  saints'  davs.  A  small  bronze  medal  with  the 
image  of  St.  Nicholas  fell  to  my  lot,  with  the  head  of 
Christ  in  one  corner,  that  of  the  Virgin  in  another, 
and  their  names  raised  in  old  Slavonic  characters 
above  them.  It  has  a  loop  to  be  liung  by  a  ribbon, 
and  St  Nicholas'  face  is  worn  smooth  by  the  reverent 
lips  that  have  touched  it.  These  medals,  —  common 
enough  and  to  be  bought  for  a  few  coppers  in  Russia, 
—  were  hijihlv  valued  b\-  us  among  our  other  Sitkan 
souvenirs. 

The  priest  of  the  Sitka  church,  Father  Mitropolski, 
is  broad  and  liberal  in  his  views,  and  quite  astonishes 
some  narrower  sectarians  by  his  mode  of  life  and 
participation  in  ordinary  amusements.  His  tolerance 
and  liberal  tendencies  were  proved  by  his  recently 
reading  the  FCpiscopal  marriage  service  before  the 
altar  of  the  Greek  Church,  uniting  at  the  time  a 
naval  officer  of  Unitarian  faith  to  a  teacher  at  the 
Presbyterian   mission.      Father  Mitropolski.   a   wife, 


M 


THE   SITKAX   Mli  llIPKLAao. 


171 


and  a  family  of  little  daughters  —  Xenia,  Nija.  and 
Alexandra  —  kce]i  life  and  sunshine  in  the  ram- 
bling', half-ruined  house,  whieh,  as  the  bishop's  resi- 
dence, was  formerly  the  finest  dwelling  after  the 
castle.  The  roof  was  then  bright  emerald  green,  and 
this  and  the  green  dome  and  ronf  of  the  church 
showed  well  in  the  cluster  of  red  roofs  that  covered 
the  other  Iniildings  in  the  town.  With  diminished 
church  revenues  and  a  lessening  congregation,  the 
building  has  slowly  fallen  into  sad  decay,  the  galleries 
and  |)orches  have  dropjK'd  off,  and  only  a  part  of  the 
house  is  now  occupied.  The  drawing-room  contains 
a  few  pieces  of  rich  furniture  as  relics  of  its  former 
days,  and  the  ])ortraits  of  the  czars,  and  the  shinitig 
samovar,  declare  it  the  homr  of  loyal  Russians.  An 
ancient  guitar,  made  of  some  finely  grained  wood  that 
is  hardly  known  to  modern  makers  of  that  instru- 
ment, was  for  a  long  time  in  the  possession  of  P'ather 
Mitropolski,  having  descended  with  the  residence 
from  the  line  of  bishops  and  priests.  It  is  very 
curious  in  its  shape  and  details,  one  end  of  it  being 
rounded  in  a  great  curve,  and  the  keyboard  not  rest- 
ing on  the  body  of  the  guitar  at  all.  It  has  a  sweet, 
melancholy  tone,  and  accompanies  appropriately  some 
of  the  strange  little  Russian  songs  that  are  sung  to 
it.  There  is  a  |)ti\'ate  chapel  off  the  (h"awing-room, 
which  contains  a  lK,'aiitifull\-  decorated  altar,  and 
family  service  is  held  there  daily. 

A.  Lutheran  church,  facing  the  (in-ek  church  on 
the  square,  was  founded  by  (M»\ernoi  Mlolin,  in 
1844.  for  the  Swedes  and  F'^imis  employed  !))■  the 
fur  company,  and  in  the  toundries  and  shipyard 
at.   Sitka.      During    the   stay   of    the   United   States 


1V2 


sorruKity  Alaska. 


troops  the  Lutheran  church  was  used  by  the  post 
chaplain,  a  Methodist.  The  abandoned  church  is 
now  in  the  last  sta<;e  of  ruin,  the  roof  sunken  in, 
and  the  walls  dropi)ini;-  ajxirt.  The  pipe-organ, 
brought  from  Germany  forty  years  ago,  was  rescued 
by  a  young  officer  of  musical  tastes,  and  by  clever 
repairing  it  was  put  in  good  condition,  and  found  to 
be  a  very  fine  instrument. 

Facing  on  this  same  church  square  is  the  ware- 
house and  the  office  of  the  old  Russian-American 
Fur  Company.  The  solid  log  buildings  have  stood 
the  ravages  of  time  and  the  damp  climate,  and  a 
mining-engineer  and  assaver  has  taken  possession  of 
it  for  his  office.  Quite  appropriately  the  headquarters 
of  the  fur  trade,  which  constituted  the  most  valuable 
interest  of  the  early  days,  is  now  the  laboratory  of 
an  assayer,  who  tests  the  minerals  upon  which  so 
much  of  the  future  im])ortance  of  the  territory 
rests, 

The  officers'  club-house,  back  of  the  Greek  church, 
is  still  in  a  fair  condition,  but  the  tea-gardens  and  the 
race-course  have  vanished  in  undergrowth.  A  sturdy 
little  fir-tree,  rooted  in  the  crevice  of  a  great  boulder 
or  outcropping  ledge  of  rocks  in  front  of  the  club- 
house, is  one  of  the  curiosities  of  Sitka,  and  has 
been  growing  in  that  solid  gran'tc  as  long  as  anyone 
now  living  there  can  remember 

The  sawmill,  with  its  large  water-wheel,  is  drop- 
ping to  decay,  the  hospital  building  was  burned  while 
used  as  a  mission-school,  and  it  is  hard  to  trrice 
the  site  of  the  old  shijoyard,  that  was  a  most  com- 
plete establishment  in  its  day.  For  a  long  time  it 
was   the   only  yard   on   the  coast,  and  vessels  of  all 


77/ f;  SlTKA.y   AUi'lUPKLAGO. 


\1',\ 


nationalities  put  in  there  for  repairs.  The  Russians 
had  one  hundred  and  eighty  chureli  holidays  during; 
the  year,  and  ohserved  tliem  all  carefully.  luiglish 
naval  commanders,  by  keepini;  their  own  Sabbath,  and 
lui\in<;  the  Russian  Sabbath  and  holidays  celebrated 
In  closing  the  shipyards  and  stopping  work,  used  to 
have  long  stays  in  the  harbor ;  and  the  impatient 
na\igators,  in  view  of  the  whirl  of  social  life  that 
marked  the  visit  of  n  strange  ship,  fairly  believer! 
that  the  tlelays  were  managed  by  the  governor's 
authority.  At  the  foundries,  ploughs  were  made  and 
exported  to  the  Mexican  j^ossessions  south  of  them, 
and  the  bells  of  half  the  California  mission  churches 
were  cast  at  the  Sitka  foundry. 

At  the  end  of  the  scattered  line  of  houses  that 
fringe  the  shore,  the  Jackson  Institute,  a  Presbyterian 
mission-school  antl  home,  occupies  a  fine  site,  facing 
the  harbor.  The  mission  was  founded  in  1878,  and 
named  for  the  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  who  has  charge 
of  the  I'resbyterirn  missions  in  Alaska,  and  the 
building  is  soon  to  be  enlarged,  to  accommodate  a 
larger  number  of  pujiils  than  were  first  gathered  in 
it,  under  the  care  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Austin. 


174 


SOUrilHh'N   ALASKA. 


ClIMTICR    XII. 


SITKA 


Till-:    I?CI)IA\    RANCIir.KIK. 


Tine  doorway  of  the  Greek  ehurch,  and  the  dial 
on  its  towc!,  face  toward  the  harbor,  and  com- 
mand the  main  street.  Ik'yond  the  houses  at  the 
right  there  is  a  httle  pine-crowned  hill,  with  the  brol<en 
and  rusty  ruins  of  a  })owder-magazine  on  its  slope,  and 
on  a  second  hill  beyond  is  the  graveyard  where  the 
Russians  Inuietl  their  dead.  i\n  old  bhjck  house,  that 
commanded  an  angle  of  the  stockade,  stands  sentry 
over  the  graves,  and  the  headstones  and  tombs  arc 
overgrown  with  rank  bushes,  ferns,  and  grasses.  Prince 
Maksoutoff's  first  wife,  who  died  at  Sitka,  was  buried 
on  the  hill,  and  a  costly,  elaborately  carved  tombstone 
was  sent  from  Russia  to  mark  the  spot.  After  the 
transfer  and  withtlrawal  of  troops,  the  Indians,  in 
their  maraudings,  defaced  the  stone,  and  attempted 
to  carry  it  off.  It  was  broken  in  the  effort,  and  left 
in  fragments  on  the  ground.  Lieutenant  Gilman, 
in  charge  of  the  marines  during  the  stay  of  the 
Adams,  became  interested  in  the  matter,  hunted  for 
the  grave  in  the  underbrush,  and  undertook  the  work 
of  replacing  the  tombstone.  Beyond  the  Russian 
cemetery,  on  the  same  overgrown  hillside,  are  the 
tombs  of  the  chiefs  and  medicine-men  of  the  Sitka 
kivaii.     The  grotesque   images  and   the  queer  little 


I 


77//;  siri<A\  Miciurr.i.Ado. 


17.') 


burial  boxes  arc  nearly  hidden  in  ihc  tannic  of  bushes 
and  vines,  and  iheir  sides  are  covered  with  moss. 

The  Russians  had  a  special  chapel  out  on  tiiis  hill 
tor  the  Indians  to  worship  in,  as  .slunvn  in  old  illus- 
trations of  Sitka,  but  tiie  buildin;;"  luis  disapjieared. 
There  was  a  heavy  stockade  wall  also,  separatinj;  the 
Indian  cemetery  and  village  from  the  white  settle- 
ment, but  it  has  nearly  all  been  torn  down  and  car- 
ried off  by  the  Indians  during  the  years  of  license 
allowed  them  after  the  troops  left,  anrl  only  frag- 
ments of  it  remain  in  places, 

Entering  through  the  okl  stockaile  gate,  the  Indian 
nvicJieric  presents  itself,  as  a  double  row^  of  square 
houses  fronting  on  the  beach.  I^ach  house  is  num- 
bered and  whitewashed,  anrl  the  ground  surround- 
ing it  gravelled  and  drained.  The  same  neatness 
marks  the  whole  long  stretch  of  the  village,  and 
amazement  at  this  condition  is  only  ended  when  one 
learns  that  the  captain  of  the  man-of-war  fines  each 
disorderly  Indian  in  l)lankets,  besides  confining  him  in 
the  guard-h(nise,  and  that  the  forfeited  blankets  are 
duly  exchanged  for  paint,  whitewash,  and  disinfectants. 
Police  and  sanitary  regulations  both  are  enforced, 
and  the  Indians  made  to  keep  their  village  quiet  and 
clean.  When  all  the  Indians  are  home  from  their 
fishing  and  trading  trips,  and  congregated  here  in  the 
winter,  they  number  ovei"  a  thousand,  and  all  goes 
merrv  at  the  nmcherie.  There  are  no  totcju  poles,  or 
can-eci  grotesquely-painted  houses  to  lend  outward 
int.'"  ,'si  to  the  village,  and  the  Indians  themselves  are 
too  ri'Uch  given  to  ready-made  clothes  and  civilized 
ways  to  be  really  picturesque. 

Annahootz,     Sitka    Jack,    and    other   chiefs    have 


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SOITHKHJ^   ALASKA. 


pine  doorplates  over  their  lintels,  to  announce  where 
j^reatness  dwells,  but  the  palace  of  Siwash  Town  is 
the  residence  of  "  Mrs.  Tom,"  a  painted  cabin  with 
green  blinds,  and  a  green  railing  across  the  front 
porch.  Mrs.  Tom  is  a  character,  a  celebrity,  and  a 
person  of  great  authority  among  her  Siwash  neigh- 
bors, and  wields  a  greater  power  and  influence  among 
her  people,  than  all  the  war  chiefs  and  medicine-men 
put  together.  Even  savage  people  bow  do\vn  to 
wealth,  and  Mrs.  Tom  is  the  reputed  possessor  of 
$io,cxx),  accumulated  by  her  own  energy  and  shrewd- 
ness. We  heard  of  Mrs.  Tom  long  before  we  reached 
Silka,  and,  realizing  her  to  be  such  a  potentate  among 
her  peojjle,  we  were  shocked  to  meet  that  lady  by  the 
roadside,  Sunday  morning,  offering  to  sell  l)racelets 
to  some  of  the  passengers.  The  richest  and  greatest 
chiefs  are  so  avaricious  that  they  will  sell  anything 
thev  own. 

Mrs.  Tom  invited  us  to  come  to  her  green-galleried 
chalet  in  Siwash  town,  "  ne.xt  door  to  No.  17,"  at 
any  time  we  j)leased.  On  the  rainiest  morning  in  all 
the  week  we  set  our  dripping  umbrella  points  in  that 
direction,  and  found  the  great  Tyee  lady  at  home. 
It  was  raw  and  chill  as  a  New  \'ork  November,  but 
Mrs.  Tom  strolled  about  barefooted,  wearing  a  single 
calico  garment,  and  wrapping  herself  in  a  white 
blanket  with  red  and  blue  stripes  across  the  ends. 
Her  black  hair  was  brushed  to  satiny  smoothness, 
braided  and  tied  with  coquettish  blue  ribbons,  and 
her  arms  were  covered  with  bracelets  up  to  her 
elbows.  She  is  a  plump  matron,  fat,  fair,  and  forty 
in  fact,  and  her  house  is  a  model  of  neatness  and 
order.     On  gala  occasions  she  arrays  herself  in  her 


THE   SITKAX  AHCHIPLLAdO. 


177 


best  velvet  dress,  her  bonnet  with  the  red  feather,  a 
prodigious  necktie  and  breastpin,  and  then,  with  two 
silver  rings  on  every  finger,  and  nine  silver  bracelets 
on  each  arm,  she  is  the  envy  of  all  the  other  ladies  of 
Siwash  town.  When  she  came  to  the  ship  to  be 
photographed  by  an  admiring  amateur,  she  had,  be- 
sides her  ordinary  regalia,  a  dozen  or  more  pairs  of 
bracelets  tied  uj)  in  a  handkerchief,  and  we  began  to 
believe  her  wealth  as  boundless  as  her  neighbors  say 
it  is.  Like  all  the  Indians  she  puts  her  faith  mostly 
in  blankets,  and  her  house  is  a  magazine  of  such 
units  of  currency,  while  deep  in  her  cedar  boxes  she 
has  fur  robes  of  the  rarest  qualiU'. 

Mrs.  Tom  has  acquired  her  fortune  by  her  own 
ability  in  legitimate  trade,  and  each  spring  and  fall 
she  loads  up  her  long  canoe  and  goes  off  on  a  great 
journey  through  the  islands,  trading  with  her  people. 
On  her  return  she  trades  with  the  traders  of  Sitka, 
and  always  comes  out  with  a  fine  profit.  A  romance 
once  wove  its  meshes  about  her,  and  on  one  of  her 
journeys  it  was  said  that  Mrs.  Tom  bought  a  handsome 
young  slave  at  a  bargain.  The  slave  was  considera- 
bly her  junior,  but  in  time  her  fancy  overlooked  that 
discrepancy,  and  after  a  few  sentimental  journeys  in 
the  long  canoe  she  duly  made  him  Mr.  Tom,  thus 
proving  that  the  human  heart  beats  the  same  in 
Siwash  town  as  in  the  Grand  Duchy,  of  Gerolstein. 

This  interesting  bit  of  gossip,  duly  vouched  for  by 
some  of  the  white  residents,  is  opposed  by  others,  who 
say  that  Mr.  Tom  is  a  chief  of  the  Sitka  ^'zaii/i  in  his 
own  right,  and  that  he  made  the  mt^salliance  when 
he  wedded  his  clever  spouse,  and  that  he  owns  a 
profitable  potato-ranch  further  down  Baranoff  Island. 


17« 


.so UTIIEHN  ALA  SKA . 


Any  one  would  prefer  the  first  and  more  romantic 
bioi,aaphy,  but,  anyway,  Mr.  Tom  is  a  smooth-faced, 
boyish-looking  man,  and  evidently  well  trained  and 
managed  by  his  spouse.  In  consideration  of  their 
combined  importance,  he  was  made  one  of  the  dele- 
gated i)olicemen  of  Siwash  town,  and  he  makes  male- 
factors answer  to  iiim,  as  he  has  learned  to  answer  to 
his  exacting  wife. 

On  the  t)ccasion  of  another  morning  call,  Mrs. 
Tom  was  meditating  a  new  dress,  and  the  native 
dressmaker  who  was  to  assist  in  the  creation  was 
called  in  to  e.xamme  the  cut  of  our  gowns,  when 
we  called  upon  her  that  lime.  There  was  a  funny 
scene  when  Mrs.  Tom  discovered  that  what  appeared 
to  her  as  a  velvet  skirt  on  the  person  of  one  of  her 
visitors,  was  merely  a  sham  flounce  that  ended  a  few 
inches  under  a  long,  draped  overskirt.  Her  bewil- 
dered look  and  the  sorry  shake  of  her  head  over  this 
evidence  of  civilized  pretence  amu.^ed  us,  and  in  slow, 
disapproving  tones  she  discussed  the  sham  and  swin- 
dle with  her  dressmaker.  She  showed  us  her  accor- 
deons,  and  gave  us  a  rheumatic  tune  on  one  of  them, 
and  we  were  afterwards  told  that  she  gives  dancing 
parties  in  winter  to  the  upper  ten  of  Siwash  town, 
who  dance  quadrilles  to  the  accordeon's  strains. 

Sitka  Jack's  house  is  a  large  square  one  fronting 
directly  on  the  beach,  and  during  his  absence  at 
Pyramid  Harbor  the  square  hearthstone  in  the  mid- 
dle was  being  kept  v*'arm  by  the  relatives  he  had  left 
behind  him.  When  this  house  was  built,  in  1877,  it 
was  warmed  by  a  grand  pot  latch,  or  least  and  gift  dis- 
tribution, that  distanced  all  previous  efforts  of  any 
rivals.     An  Alaska  chief  is  considered  rich  in  propor- 


THE  SITKA N   ARCHIPELAGO. 


179 


tion  as  he  gives  away  his  possessions,  and  Sitka  Jack 
rose  an  hundredfold  in  Siwash  esteem  when  he  gave 
his  ^nim]  />o//(iU'//.  All  his  relatives  assisted  in  build- 
ing the  house,  and  this  same  community  idea  entities 
them  to  live  in  it.  Over  five  hundred  blankets  were 
given  away  at  his  fotlatcJi,  and  the  dance  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  great  feast,  in  which  much  whiskey  and 
native  lioochinoo  figured.  Hen  llolladay,  Sr.,  with  a 
large  yachting  jiarty.  was  in  the  harbor  at  the  time, 
and  lent  interest  to  the  occa.sion  by  offering  prizes 
for  canoe  races  and  adding  a  water  carnival  to  the 
other  festivities.  Sitka  Jack  nearly  beggared  himsidf 
by  this  great  house-warming,  but  his  fame  was  settled 
on  a  substantial  basis,  and  he  has  since  had  time  to 
partly  recuperate.  He  has  aged  rapidly  of  late  years, 
and  now  he  delights  to  crouch  by  his  fireside  in  win- 
ter evenings  and  relate  the  story  of  his  <^\~(i-ix\.  pot  latch 
of  seven  years  ago,  which  was  such  an  event  that  even 
the  wdiite  residents  date  by  it.  Another  great  pot- 
latch  made  the  summer  of  1882  historical,  and  the 
presence  of  the  Dakota,  with  (ieneral  Miles  and  his 
regimental  band  aboard,  stirred  the  raiichenc  to  re- 
doubled efforts. 

Jack  and  Koo^ka,  the  silversmiths  of  the  Sitka 
kwaii,  are  very  skilful  workmen,  and  one  can  sit  beside 
their  work  benches  and  watch  them  fashion  the  brace- 
lets that  are  in  such  demand.  During  the  summer 
months  they  can  sell  their  ornaments  faster  than  they 
can  make  them,  and  in  two  hours  after  a  steamer's 
arrival  their  stock  is  exhausted,  and  they  work  night 
and  day  on  special  orders  while  the  vessel  is  at  the 
wharf.  If  you  give  them  the  order  in  the  morning 
the  bracelets  are  ready  in  the  afternoon,  as  carefully 


180 


SOUTHEIiN   ALASKA. 


finished  and  engraved  as  any  of  the  others  of  their 
make.  In  one  doorway  we  saw  a  woman  crouchinor 
or  lying  face  downwards,  and  slowly  engraving  a 
silver  finger  ring.  She  had  a  broken  penknife  for  an 
engraver's  tool,  and  slie  held  it  in  her  closed  haiul, 
blade  down,  and  drew  it  towards  her  as  she  worked. 
Her  attitude,  and  the  management  of  the  steel,  set 
the  oriental  theorists  off  into  speculations  again,  and 
they  decided  that  she  herself  must  have  come  straight 
across  from  Japan,  so  identical  were  her  proceedings 
with  those  of  the  embroiderers  and  art  workers  in  the 
kingdom  of  Dai  Nippon. 

She  was  quite  unconscious  and  self-possessed  while 
we  stood  chattering  about  her,  and  continued  to 
chew  gum  in  the  most  nonchalant  manner.  Inside 
of  this  barred  doorway,  the  other  members  of  the  fam- 
ily were  sitting  about  the  fire,  taking  their  morning 
meal.  For  their  ten  o'clock  breakfast  they  were  enjoy- 
ing smoked  salmon  with  oil,  and  an  unhealthy  looking 
kind  of  dough,  or  bread,  vvash<xl  down  by  very  bad 
tea,  judging  from  the  way  in  which  the  tin  teapot 
was  allowed  to  boil  and  thump  away  on  the  coals. 
They  are  none  of  them  epicures,  and  even  in  the 
matter  of  sidmon  they  make  no  distinction,  and  cure 
and  eat  the  rank  dog  salmon  almost  in  preference  to 
the  choicer  varieties.  Although  they  are  e.\i)ert  hunt- 
ers, and  bring  in  all  the  venison  and  wild  fowl  for  the 
Sitka  market,  they  seldom  eat  game  themselves.  It 
takes  away  a  civilizetl  appetite  to  see  them  eat  the 
cakes  of  black  seaweed,  the  sticks  and  branches 
covered  with  the  herring  roe  that  they  whip  from  the 
surface  of  the  water  at  certain  seasons,  and  the  dried 
salmon  eggs  that  they  are  so  particularly  fond  of. 


rilH   SI  IK  A. \    Ml<  Illl'ULAdO 


l«l 


i 


They  eat  almost  anythin<;  that  lives  In  'he  sea,  and 
the  octopus,  or  devil-fish,  is  a  dainty  that  ranks  with 
seal  riippers  for  a  feast.  Clams  of  enormous  size, 
found  on  the  beaches  throuj;h  the  ishimls,  anil  mus- 
sels are  other  stajile  dishes. 

The  Sitka  IniUans,  we  were  assured  b)'  a  resident, 
'*  are  the  sassiest  and  most  rascally  Siwashes  to  be 
found  in  the  country,"  but  outwardly  they  cUffered  very 
little  from  the  other  tribes  that  wc  had  seen.  They 
have  the  same  broad,  flat  faces,  and  from  jjjenerations 
of  canoe-paddling  ancestors  have  inhcriteil  a  ma<;niti- 
cent  development  of  the  shouUlers,  chests,  and  arms. 
This  development  is  at  the  e.\i)ense  of  the  rest  of  the 
frame,  and,  from  sittinj^  cramped  in  their  canoes,  the 
lower  limbs  are  dwarfed  antl  crooked,  and  their  bodies 
affect  one  with  the  unpleasant  sense  of  deformity. 
They  are  stumblin^;  and  shamblinj;  in  their  j;ait,  And 
toe  in  to  e.\agi;cration  ;  and  these  amphibious,  tish- 
eating  natives  are  as  different  as  possible  from  the 
wild  horsemen  of  the  plains,  or  the  pastoral  tribes  of 
the  southwest.  The  Sitkans  have  the  same  mythology 
and  totemic  system  as  the  rest  of  the  Ti\linket  tribes, 
and  reverence  the  sjiirits  of  the  raven,  the  wolf,  th«' 
whale,  bear,  and  eagle  :  and  their  worship  of  the  spirits 
and  ashes  of  their  ancestors  is  quite  equal  to  the 
Chinese.  They  cremate  their  dead,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  the  merlicine  men,  who  are  laid  awav  in  slate, 
and  the  poles  and  fluttering  rags  set  up  around  the 
village  indicate  the  sacred  spots  where  the  ashes 
lie.  They  worship  the  spirits  of  the  earth,  air,  and 
water ;  and  the  spirits  of  the  departed  ones,  now  occu- 
pying; the  bodies  of  the  ravens  that  fly  overhead. 
exe.nj)t  those  huge  croakers    from    shot   and    snare. 


162 


SOrillKUy    ALASKA. 


They  show  souk-  belief  in  a  future  state  by  Haying 
that  the  ti.imes  of  the  aurora  borealis  are  the  spirits 
of  dead  warriors  dancing  overhead.  When  a  chief  dies 
his  wives  pass  to  liis  next  heir,  and  unless  these 
relicts  i)urchase  their  freedom  with  blankets,  they  are 
uniteil  t(»  their  grandsons,  or  nephews,  as  a  matter  of 
course.  High-strung  young  Sivvashes  sometimes 
scorn  these  legacies,  and  then  there  is  war  between 
the  totems,  all  the  widows'  clan  resenting  such  an 
outrage  of  decency  and  established  etiquette.  Curi- 
ously with  this  subjection  of  the  women,  it  is  ihey 
who  are  the  family  autocrats  and  tyrants,  giving  the 
casting-vote  in  domestic  councils,  and  overriding  the 
male  decisions  in  the  UKJst  high-hamled  manner. 
Hen-pecking  is  too  small  a  word  to  describe  the  way 
in  which  they  bully  their  lords,  and  many  times  our 
bargain  with  the  ostensible  head  of  the  family  was 
broken  up  by  the  woman  arriving  on  the  scene,  and 
insisting  that  he  should  not  sell,  or  should  charge  us 
more.  Woman's  rights,  and  her  sphere  and  influ- 
ence, have  reached  a  development  among  the  Sitkans, 
that  would  astonish  the  suffrage  leaders  of  Wyoming 
and  Washington  Territory.  They  are  all  keen,  sharp 
trailers,  and  if  the  women  object  to  the  final  j)rice 
offered  for  their  furs  at  the  Sitka  stores,  they  get  into 
their  canoes,  and  ])addle  up  to  Juneau,  or  down  to 
Wrangell,  and  even  across  the  border  to  the  l^ritish 
trading  posts.  They  take  no  account  of  time  or 
travel,  and  a  journey  of  a  thousand  miles  is  justihed 
to  them,  if  they  only  get  another  yard  of  calico  in 
exchange  for  their  furs.  All  the  Thlinkets  are  great 
visitors,  and  canoe  loads  of  visiting  Indians  can 
always  be  found  at  a  village.      The   Sitka  and  the 


THE  SiTKAy  Alicnil'KLAiiO. 


l«a 


Stikinc  kwaus  seem  to  affiliate  most,  but  visits 
from  members  of  all  the  tribes  make  the  Sitka 
iwicheric  an  aborigine  metro[)(>lis.  lUisybodies  and 
cosmo|M)litans,  like  Sitka  Jack,  live  all  over  the  archi- 
l)elaj;o,  atul  it  was  this  roamin:;-  i)roi)ensity  that  gave 
the  military  forces  so  much  trouble  durini;  {garrison 
(lays  at  Sitka.  The  land  forces  couKI  do  nothing; 
with  the  scornful  Indian^  in  tiieir  ligdit  kaiiitns,  ant! 
when  the  ortler  was  given  to  let  no  Indian  leave  the 
ranc/u)ii\  they  snapped  their  fingers  at  the  challeng- 
ing and  forbidding  sentries,  and  paddletl  away  at  their 
pleasure.  They  have  a  great  respect  for  a  gun- 
boat with  its  ceremony,  potnp,  and  strict  discij)line, 
and  its  busy  steam  launches,  that  can  follow  their 
canoes  to  the  most  remote  creeks  and  hiding-places 
in  the  inlands.  The  Indians  emi)lt)yed  on  the  AtLuns 
were  diligent  and  faithful  serxilors,  anil  were  much 
pleased  with  their  saihu's'  cajjs  ;iiid  toggery,  and  the 
official  state  surrounding  them. 

Inilian  legends  and  tratlitions  can  be  had  by  the 
score  at  Sitka,  but  it  is  liard  to  \H'rify  any  of  them, 
and  the  myths,  rites,  and  folk-lore  of  the  people  are 
not  to  be  gathered  with  e.x'actness  dui  ing  the  touch- 
and-go  excitement  of  a  summer  cruise.  Bishop 
\'eniamin()ff  mastered  their  language,  and  translated 
books  of  the  Testament,  hymns,  and  catechism,  and 
pui>lished  several  works  on  the  Koloshians.  Baron 
Wrangell  also  wrote  a  great  deal  concerning  them, 
and  abstracts  from  these  two  writers  have  been  given 
by  Dall  and  IVtroff.  Xo  ethnologists  have  made 
studies  among  the  Thlinkets  since  Veniaminol^  and 
Wrangell,  a  half  century  ago,  and  the  field  lies  ready 
for  some  northern  Cushing. 


184 


aOVTUEHN  ALA8KA, 


CIIAITKR    XIII. 


SITKA  —  SII5LKIJ.S    AND    CLIMATE. 


ENTHUSIASTS  who  have  seen  both,  declare 
that  the  Bay  of  Sitka  surpasses  the  Hay  of 
Naples  in  the  grandeur  and  beauty  of  its  surround- 
ings. The  comparison  is  instituted  between  these 
two  distant  ])laces,  because  the  extinct  volcano,  Mount 
lulgecumbe,  rears  its  snow-filled  crater  above  the  bay, 
as  Vesuvius  does  by  the  curving  shores  of  the  peerless 
bay  of  the  Mediterranean.  Nothing  could  be  finer 
than  the  outlines  of  this  grand  old  mountain  that  rises 
from  the  jutting  corner  of  an  island  across  the  bay, 
and  in  the  sleepy,  summer  sun,  Edgecumbe's  slopes  are 
bluer  than  lapis  lazuli  or  sapphire,  and  the  softest,  film- 
iest gray  clouds  trail  across  the  ragged  walls  of  the 
crater.  It  is  more  than  a  century  since  it  poured  forth 
its  smoke  and  lava,  but  jets  of  steam  occasionally  rise 
from  it  now,  and  if  an  exploration  of  its  unknown 
slopes  is  ever  made,  some  signs  of  active  life  will 
doubtless  be  found.  Great  patches  of  snow  lie  within 
the  crater's  rim,  and,  standing  as  a  sentinel  on  the 
very  edge  of  the  great  Pacific,  Edgecumbe  is  perpet- 
ually wreathed  with  the  clouds  that  float  »n  from  the 


rHK  SITKAS   A  1{(  II I  PEL  AGO. 


IS') 


|in 

\c 


sea.  The  Indians  have  fastened  many  of  their 
legends  and  myths  to  it,  and  the  Creator  and  the 
original  crow  are  supposed  to  have  come  from  its 
depths  and  to  still  dwell  therein,  while  Captain  Cook, 
the  great  navii^ator,  gave  it  the  name  which  it  now 
bears. 

A  hundred  little  islands  lie  in  the  harbor  of  Sitka, 
within  the  great  sweep  of  the  Haranoft  shores,  whose 
curve  is  greater  than  a  semicircle  at  this  point, 
I'^ach  one  is  a  tangled  bit  of  rock  and  forest,  and 
their  dense,  green  thickets  and  grassy  slopes  are 
bordered  with  mats  of  golden  and  russet  sea- 
weeds, that  at  low  tide  afld  the  last  tine  tone  to  a 
landscape  of  the  richest  coloring.  Kvery  foot  of 
island  shore  off  Sitka  is  sketchablc,  and  a  picture  in 
itself;  and  the  clear,  soft  light,  the  luminous  trans- 
parent tones,  would  be  the  rapture  of  a  water-color 
artist.  Jaj)onski,  which  is  the  largest  of  this  group 
of  little  islands,  lies  directly  abreast  of  Sitka,  and 
the  Russians  maintained  an  observatory  on  it  dur- 
ing their  ownership.  At  the  time  of  the  transfer, 
all  of  the  larger  islands  of  the  harbor  were  marked 
off  as  government  reservations,  but  during  these 
seventeen  years  nothing  has  been  rione  to  maintain 
the  government's  claim,  and  settlers  have  lived  on, 
cleared,  and  cultivated  the  land  without  molestation. 
The  old  observatory  on  Japonski  Island  has  dropped 
to  ruins,  the  last  vestige  of  it  has  disapj)eare(l  under 
the  dense  cover  of  vegetation,  and  the  squatter  who 
now  occupies  it  raises  fine  Japonski  potatoes  for  the 
Sitka  market. 
-    During  the  time  that  the  Russians  kept  their  care- 


■^■^■i 


18fi 


SOUTH FMS  ALASKA. 


fill  meteorological  records  at  the  Japonski  Observa- 
tory and  on  shore,  the  thermometer  went  below  zero 
only  four  times,  and  the  variation  between  the  sum- 
mer and  winter  lemiKT.iture  is  no  <j^reater  than  on 
the  California  coast,  it  is  the  warm  current  of  the 
Kuro  Siwo,  or  Hlaek  Stream  of  Japan,  pcKuin*:;  full  on 
this  shore,  that  tnodifies  the  temperature,  and  brings 
the  fogs  and  mists  that  i)erpetuallv  wieath  the 
mountains,  so  that  l'"ort  \\  rangell.  though  south 
of  Sitka,  is  colder  in  winter  and  warnu-r  in  summer 
on  account  of  its  distance  from  the  ocean  current. 
The  Sitka  summer  temperature  of  51°  and  55^  pleases 
the  fancy  of  dwellers  in  the  east,  c|uite  as  much  as 
the  even  and  temperate  chill  of  31"  and  38°  in  mid- 
winter. Ice  seldom  forms  of  any  thickness,  and 
skating  on  the  lake  back  of  the  church  at  Sitka  is  a 
rarity  in  the  winter  amusements.  While  St.  John's 
in  Newfoundland  is  beleaguered  by  icebergs  in  sum- 
mer, and  its  harbor  frozen  solid  in  winter,  Sitka, 
ten  degrees  north  of  it,  1k!'<  always  an  o))en  roadstead. 
As  compared  with  the  climate  of  Leadville,  or  some 
of  the  torrid  spots  in  Arizona,  the  miners  at  Sitka 
and  luneau  have  nothing  to  complain  of,  and  never 
have  to  contend  against  the  fearful  odds  that  opposed 
the  miners  during  the  first  rush  to  the  Coeur  d'Alene 
region. 

The  mean  temperature  of  the  air  and  of  the  surface 
sea  water,  and  the  precipitation  for  each  month  of 
the  year  at  Sitka,  as  given  in  the  tables  in  the  Alaska 
Coast  Pilot  for  1883,  are  as  follows:  — 


8 


rUE  sllKA\   AUrilll'KL.VH). 


187 


Month 


^1    ' 

Zi    ^ 

3   Z. 

^    3 

Z  t 

2  y 

(/I 

January 
February 
March    . 
April 
May  .     . 
June  .     . 
July    .     . 
August   . 
September 
Or»o',.  r 
November 
December 


3'  4 

39 

7-35 

^2v 

39 

^•4.; 

35-7 

39-5 

5-:!') 

r.H 

4-5 

5- '7 

47.  > 

4^.5 

413 

';?4 

4H 

3.U2 

:;5-'; 

4<) 

4i'> 

55v 

50 

6.(/) 

5«  3 

5'-5 

(/r/) 

UV 

4«-9 

1 1. .S3 

3«« 

44.4 

SY), 

33-3 

41.7 

«-39 

Year 


43.3      45.0     :;f.f«) 


The  onl\  drawback  to  tliis  cool  and  cc)ual)Ic  climate 
is  the  h4.'avy  rainfall,  which  even  a  Scotchman  says 
makes  it  *'  a  wee  hair  too  wet."  One  soon  j^ets  used 
to  it,  and  ;^oes  arouml  unconcernedly  in  a  panoply  of 
rubber  and  gossamer  cloth,  and  rejoices  that  Sitka  is 
not  Fort  Tongass.  where  the  rainfall  was  1  iS. 30  inches 
a  year,  for  the  time  that  the  drenched  and  half-drowned 
officers  kept  the  records.  With  all  this  downpour 
there  is  little  dampness  in  the  air,  and,  contradictory 
as  this  may  seem,  it  is  proven  by  the  fact  that  clothes 
will  dry  under  a  shed  during  the  heaviest  rains. 
Hoots  and  shoes  do  not  mould,  clothing  does  not  get 
musty  as  in  other  climates,  and  on  shii)board  it  is 
noticeable  that  kid  gloves  and  shoes  show  no  reluc- 
tance at  being  pulled  on  on  the  wettest  mornings. 
The  snow  lies  on  the  mountain  tops  and  sides  all 


\HH 


sourHKhW  ALA  SKA. 


il! 


IJP 


I'  . 


the  year  through,  though  in  a  warm,  dry  summer 
it  retreats  to  the  .summits  and  higher  ravines.  In 
winter  the  snow  seldom  lasts  long  on  the  level,  and 
mist  and  rain,  coming  after  each  snowfall,  soon  reduce 
it  to  slush.  Those  contradictions  of  climate  are  quite 
at  variance  with  the  accei)ted  ideas  of  Alaska,  and 
although  its  enemies  say  that  it  can  never  be  made 
to  supi)ort  a  })()|)ulati()n  since  grain  and  vegetables 
will  not  grow  there,  vegetables  continue  to  be  raised 
in  this  part  of  the  territory,  as  they  have  for  more  than 
fifty  years,  and  wild  timothy  and  grasses  grow  three 
and  four  feet  high  in  every  clearing.  No  very  intel- 
ligent methods  of  cultivating  the  soil  have  ever  been 
attem|)ted,  and  drainage  is  an  unknown  science. 
Vancouver  found  the  Indians  cultivating  potatvoes 
and  a  kind  of  tobacco,  and  there  are  little  plantations 
back  in  sheltered  nooks  of  the  archipelago,  where  the 
Indians  go  each  year  to  plant  and  gather  their  pota- 
toes. The  Siwash  sows  his  potatoes  as  a  farmer  does 
his  grain,  and  very  fine  tubers  cannot  be  expected 
from  such  farming.  So  far  the  residents  of  the  ter- 
ritory have  been  like  those  dwellers  on  western 
cattle  ranches,  who  count  their  cattle  by  thousands 
and  use  condensed  milk  and  imported  butter,  and 
the  tin  can  is  oftener  seen  than  the  hoe  or  garden 
tools  among  them. 

Although  hay  cannot  be  cured  in  the  natural  way 
in  this  rainy  region,  scientific  farmers  think  it  feas- 
ible to  cut  and  salt  in  trenches  all  the  hay  that 
will  be  needed  for  the  cattle  for  many  years.  Sleek 
cows  are  grazing  in  the  streets  and  open  places 
around  Sitka,  and  the  residents  point  with  pride 
to  two  venerable  mules  that  were  left  by  the  quarter- 


i 


Tin:  sir  KAN  ahchipelaoo. 


181) 


master,  when  the  garrison  was  abandoned,  and  that 
for  seven  years  ran  wild  and  "  rustled  "  for  them- 
selves summer  and  winter.  They  weathered  all  the 
wet  seasons,  fora<;ed  for  themselves  in  the  winters, 
and  rioted  in  sweet  ^^^rasses  as  hi^di  as  their  ears 
durin<T;  the  j)erfect,  luxuriant  summers,  and  are  fjood 
mules  now. 

The  fine  little  spoui^es  and  the  delicate  coral 
branches  that  are  occasionally  found  in  the  harbor 
puzzle  one  with  another  hint  of  the  tropics  in  this 
hii^h  latitude,  (ireat  fronds  of  seaweed  and  kelp  as 
large  as  banana  leaves  drift  on  the  rocks  with  the 
rushing  tid.^s,  and  the  long,  snaky  if/i^w  that  float 
on  the  water  are  often  found  eighty  and  one  hundred 
feet  long.  It  is  of  these  tough,  hollow  pipes  that  the 
Indians  make  the  worms  for  their  rude  Jioocliinoo  dis- 
tilleries, or,  splitting  and  twisting  it,  make  fishing 
lines  many  fathoms  in  length.  The  same  little  teredo 
that  eats  up  ship  timbers  and  piles  in  southern 
oceans  is  as  destructive  here  in  the  harbor  of  Sitka 
as  anywhere  in  the  tropics.  The  ])iles  of  the  wharf 
only  last  five  years  at  the  longest,  antl  the  merciless 
borers  eat  up  the  timbers  of  the  old  wrecks  and 
hulks  with  which  the  first  foundations  for  a  wharf 
were  begun,  and  nothing  but  the  yellow  cedar  of  the 
archipelago  is  said  to  withstand  the  teredo. 

Among  other  things  that  Sitka  can  boast  of  as  an 
attruction  is  a  promenade,  a  well-gravelled  walk  that 
the  Russians  built  along  the  curving  line  of  the  beach, 
and  through  the  woods,  to  the  banks  of  the  pretty 
Indian  River.  Up  and  down  this  walk  the  Russians 
used  to  stroll,  and  during  the  stay  of  the  mail  steamer 
the  walk  to  Indian  River  is  taken  once  and  twice  a 


11)0 


so  VTHEliN  A  L .  I  .S AVI 


i'j. 


day  by  the  passengers,  who  are  enraptured  by  the 
scenery,  and  given  such  an  opportunity  to  see  the  heart 
of  the  woods  and  the  mysteries  of  the  forest  growth. 
In  seasons  past,  many  primitive  and  picturesque  httle 
bridges  have  spanned  the  rushing  current  of  this  crystal 
clear  stream,  but  high  waters  have  swei)t  them  away 
season  after  season.  Lieut.  Gil  man,  in  charge  of  tlie 
marines  attached  to  the  Adams,  who  rescued  Princess 
Maksoutoff's  tombstone,  and  was  general  director  of 
public  works  and  improvements,  took  his  men  and  a 
force  of  Indians  belonging  to  the  shijVs  crew,  and 
cleared  a  new  pathway  from  the  beach  to  the  river,  in 
1884.  Me  led  paths  up  either  side  of  the  strea.n  for 
a  half  mile  or  more  ;  bridged  the  stream  twice,  and 
threw  two  picturesque  bridges  across  the  ravines  on 
the  river  bank.  A  great  deal  of  taste  and  ingenuity 
was  shown  in  choosing  the  route  along  the  river,  so  as 
to  bring  in  view  all  the  best  points  of  scenery,  and  the 
rustic  bridges  in  fantastic  designs  add  greatly  to  many 
of  the  glimpses  from  under  the  greenwood  trees.  All 
along  Indian  River  the  ferns  run  riot,  covering  the 
ground  in  every  clearing,  and  curling  their  great 
fronds  up  with  the  huge  green  leaves  of  the  "  devil's 
club,"  that  would  make  parasols  for  people  larger 
than  elfs  or  fairies.  The  moss  covers  everything 
under  foot  with  a  close,  springy  carpet  six  inches 
deep,  and  moss  and  lichens,  ferns  and  grasses  envelop 
every  fallen  log  and  twig,  and  convert  them  into  things 
of  beauty.  Giant  firs  and  ]Mnes  rise  abov'c  the  pros- 
trate trunks  of  other  large  trees,  whose  wood  is 
still  sound  at  the  heart,  although  the  roots  of  a  tree 
seventy  feet  high  are  arched  and  knotted  over  them. 
These  overgrown  trunks  of  prostrate  trees  are  scat- 


n^: 


THE  SITKAN  ARCHlPELAaO. 


\\n 


tered  all  through  the  woods,  and  on  one  side  of  the 
river  there  is  a  fallen  tree  that  would  excite  won- 
der even  in  the  proves  of  California.  Where  the 
upturned  roots  are  exposed,  they  are  matted  into  a 
broad  flat  base  on  which  the  ta)K'rin<;-  trunk  without 
tap-roots  once  stood  like  a  candle  on  a  candlestick. 
The  fallen  trunk  is  over  ten  feet  in  diameter,  and 
a  man  six  feet  hiL;h  is  ciwarfed  when  he  stands  be- 
side the  root.  A  second  forest  of  ferns,  bushes,  and 
young  trees  has  sprung  up  on  top  of  this  overturned 
tree,  and  its  giant  outlines  will  soon  be  lost  in  the 
tangle  of  vegetation. 

The  size  of  the  cedar-trees  in  the  archipelago  has 
long  been  a  matter  of  record,  /irmy  officers  tell  that 
cedars  eight  feet  in  diameter  were  cut  down  when 
they  built  the  post  at  Fort  Tongass,  and  Mr,  Seward 
often  boasted  of  the  great  planks,  four  and  five  feet 
wide,  hewn  by  stone  hatchets,  that  he  measured  in 
Kootznahoo  and  Tongass  villages. 

One  bridge  hangs  its  airy  trestles  over  Indian  River 
at  a  point  where  the  main  branch  comes  tumbling 
down  in  cascades,  and  a  side  stream  pours  in  its 
sparkling,  clear  waters.  Heyond  that  bridge,  the  path 
winds  out  into  a  clearing,  and  past  an  old  brewery 
that  flourished  and  made  fortunes  for  its  owners  under 
Russian  rule.  The  United  States  has  i)revented  the 
manufacture  and  importation  of  all  kinds  of  liquors  in 
Alaska,  and  the  brewery  has  been  abandoned  for  many 
years.  All  the  acres  of  the  clearing  in  which  it  stands 
are  covered  thickly  with  blueberry  bushes  and  rose 
bushes,  while  white  clover  lies  lik'^  snow-drifts  on  either 
side  of  the  corduroy  road  that  leads  into  the  town.  The 
salmon  berries,  that  wave  their  clusters  of  golden  and 


•V  >HB'.'«mM>  !*»« 


■■■■ 


192 


SOUTHERN  ALA HKA. 


'■\\^ 


crimson  fruit  in  the  woods  and  along  the  steep  river 
hank,  disappear  at  the  edge  of  this  clearing,  and  the 
blueberries  are  thicker  than  anything  else  that  can 
grow  on  a  bush,  l^ig  ravens  croak  in  the  tall  tree-tops 
in  the  woods,  inviting  a  shot  from  a  sportsman,  but, 
when  hit,  they  fall  into  such  thickets  that  the  most  ex- 
perienced bird  dogs  could  never  retrieve  one.  Tiny 
humming-birds,  with  green  and  crimson  throats,  nest  in 
the  woods  along  the  river,  and  the  drumming  of  their 
little  wings  is  the  first  warning  of  their  presence.  All 
that  woodland  that  borders  Indian  River  is  a  part  of 
an  enchanted  forest,  and  more  lovely  than  words  can 
tell. 

Where  the  path  again  reaches  the  beach  and  brings 
in  view  the  harbor  and  its  island,  ,  a  large  si|uare  block 
of  stone  lies  beside  the  path.  It  is  popularly  known 
as  the  Blarney  Stone,  and  dowers  the  one  who  kisses 
it  with  a  charmed  tongue.  All  the  men-of-war  and 
revenue  cutters  that  have  visited  the  harbor  have  left 
their  names  and  dates  cut  in  the  rock,  and  some 
strange  old  Russian  hieroglyphs  antedate  them  all 
and  give  a  proper  touch  of  mystery  to  it.  Captain 
Meade  speaks  of  this  Blarney  Stone  as  a  favorite  rock 
"  on  which  Baranoff,  the  first  governor,  used  to  sit  on 
fine  afternoons  and  drink  brandy,  until  he  became  so 
much  overcome  that  his  friends  had  to  take  him  home." 
There  are  several  improbable  and  manufacti  red  le- 
gends attached  to  it,  but  since  the  Indians  have  taken 
to  gathering  around  it  and  sitting  on  it  in  groups, 
faith  in  the  miraculous  power  of  the  stone  has  de- 
creased among  the  white  people. 

In  connection  with  this  woodland  walk  along  Indian 
River,  a  tragic  little  story  was  told,  to  a  company  sip- 


»-      y 


1 


THE  SITKA N  AUCinPELAGO. 


ina 


I 


ping  tea  around  a  shining  samovar  one  night,  that 
invests  even  the  garrison  days  that  succeeded  the 
transfer  with  something  of  romantic  incident.  The 
captain  and  a  heutenant  of  one  of  the  companies 
stationed  at  Sitka  in  the  first  year  of  United  States 
possession  fell  desperately  in  love  with  the  same 
beautiful  Russian.  She  was  a  most  charming  woman, 
with  soft,  mysterious  eyes,  a  pale,  delicate  lace,  and  a 
slow,  dreamy  smile  that  set  tlie  two  warriors  wild. 
All  the  garrison  knew  of  their  fierce  rivalry,  so  mar- 
velled not  a  little  when  their  ohl  friendshij)  appeared  to 
be  restored,  and  the  two  suitors  started  off  on  a  hunt- 
ing expedition  together.  One  haggard  man  returned 
two  days  later,  and  said  that  his  companion  had  been 
attacked  and  gored  to  death  by  an  enraged  buck  in 
the  forest.  He  was  gloomy  and  strange  in  his  man- 
ner, and  at  nightfall  went  to  the  house  of  the  Russian 
lady  to  break  the  news  of  his  rival'^  death.  The 
friends  of  the  lost  officer  talked  the  thing  over,  and, 
suspecting  that  a  duel  had  been  fought,  decided  to  go 
out  the  next  day  and  search  for  the  body  In  the 
morning  the  surviving  rival  was  found  dead  in  bed, 
with  a  look  of  agony  and  horror  on  his  face.  One 
story  was  that  his  victim  had  ai")|)eared  to  him,  and 
he  had  died  of  fright  and  terror  ;  the  other  was  that 
some  unknown  and  subtle  poison  had  been  adminis- 
tered to  him  in  a  cup  of  tea,  and  the  official  report 
ascribed  his  death  to  heart-disease.  The  body  of  the 
lost  rival  was  found  at  the  foot  of  a  steep  bank  on  the 
shore  of  Indian  River,  where  a  tangle  of  ferns,  bushes 
and  grasses  shaded  and  almost  covered  the  clear,  still 
pool  in  which  he  lay.  His  rifle  was  near  him,  and  a 
bullet-hole  in  the  heart  told  the  sad  truth,  that  his 


mnn 


194 


SOUTIJKRN  ALASKA. 


friends  had  suspected.  His  death  was  officially  at- 
tributed to  the  accidental  discharge  of  his  own  rifle 
while  hunting,  and  under  these  two  verdicts  the  real 
truth  was  concealed.  The  family  of  the  Russian 
beauty  disapj)eared  from  Sitka  in  a  few  months,  and 
the  story  had  been  half  forgotten  until  the  recent 
opening  of  u  path  along  Indian  River  recalled  it  to 
some  of  those  who  liveil  at  Sitka  at  the  time. 

All  around  Sitka  and  its  beautiful  bay  there  are 
sylvan  spots  where  the  si)ortsman  and  the  angler 
rejoice.  The  late  Major  William  Gouverneur  Morris, 
who  lived  at  Sitka  for  several  years,  and  was  collector 
of  customs  at  the  time  of  his  death,  was  an  enthusi- 
astic fisherman,  and  could  tell  templing  tales  of  his 
exploits  with  the  rod.  A  small  lake,  a  few  miles 
back  from  the  town,  was  his  favorite  resort,  and  on 
one  occasion  the  Major's  party  caught  four  hundred 
and  three  trout  in  three  hours.  At  Sawmill  Creek  a 
party  of  visiting  anglers  hooked  sixty  pounds  of  trout 
one  morning,  and  the  little  Indian  boys  land  salmon- 
trout  from  any  place  along  Indian  River. 

At  old  Sitka,  nine  miles  north  of  the  j)resent  town, 
a  salmon  cannery  was  established  in  1879  by  the 
Messrs.  Cutting  of  San  Francisco.  The  Sitka  In- 
dian.*-'  offered  great  objections  to  the  landing  of  the 
Chinamen  who  were  sent  up  tc  start  the  work  in 
the  cannery,  and  their  spirit  was  so  hostile  at  first, 
that  the  agent  feared  he  would  have  to  abandon  the 
Chinamen  or  the  whole  project.  The  chiefs  were 
finally  pacified  by  being  assured  that  the  Chinese 
had  only  been  brought  to  teach  them  a  new  process 
of  salmon-canning,  and  after  a  short  time  all  but  a 
few  of  the  Chinamen  were  sent  back,  and  over  one 


1 


THE  STTlxAX   AHClIIfKLAGO. 


195 


Ln- 
he 
I  in 
jst, 
|he 
[re 
Ise 
ks 
a 
ine 


hundred  Indians  were  employed  at  the  cannery. 
After  four  years  the  cannery  was  nKn'cd  to  a  point 
further  north,  and  the  Hay  of  Starri  Gavan  settleil 
into  its  old  deserted  way.  Over  twenty-one  thou- 
sand cases  of  canned  sahnon  were  shipped  from  tlie 
new  cannery  in  1884,  and  the  owners  felt  justified 
in  foUowini;  the  prospectors'  luhicc  to  jj;'o  further 
north. 

South  of  Sitka  the  bay  is  indented  with  many 
inlets,  and  ten  miles  below  the  town  are  the  Hot 
Springs,  destined  to  a<;ain  become  a  resort  and  sani- 
tarium, when  Sitka  regains  the  size  and  importance 
of  old.  The  springs  are  situated  in  a  beautiful  bay, 
and  the  waters,  im})regnated  with  iron,  sulphur,  and 
magnesia,  are  efficacious  in  cases  of  rheumatism  and 
skin  diseases.  The  Russian  Fur  Company  erected  a 
hospital  there  for  its  employees,  but  in  late  years 
only  the  Indians,  occasional  hunters,  and  i)rospec- 
tors  have  patronized  the  springs  to  any  extent.  An 
eccentric  old  lady,  who  writes  blank-verse  letters 
to  the  IVesident  and  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  when 
things  go  wrong  in  Sitka,  spent  some  weeks  in  solitude 
at  the  springs  one  summer,  and  was  highly  indignant 
when  the  naval  commander  sent  down  and  insisted 
up(jn  her  return  to  the  settlement,  as  they  were  all 
alarmed  for  her  safet\-.  The  lazy  Indians  who  go  to 
the  s])rings  are  said  to  sit  in  the  pools  of  warm  water 
all  night,  rather  than  gather  the  wood  for  a  camp-fire, 
and  they  have  great  faith  in  the  powers  of  the  metli- 
cated  waters.  Some  of  the  enthusiasts,  who  have 
the  glory  of  the  territory  at  heart,  foresee  the  day 
when  the  Hot  Springs  will  be  famous,  and  a  summer 
hotel,  with  all  civilized  accompaniments,  draw  visit- 


■« 


19(> 


SOUTlJEliX  ALASKA. 


ors  from  all  parts  of  the  globe.  Professor  Davidson, 
in  an  article  in  "  Lippincott's  Magazine,"  of  Novem- 
ber, 1868,  tells  of  a  glacier  hidden  away  near  the 
bay,  which  will,  of  course,  add  to  the  attractions  of 
this  summer  resort  of  the  next  century. 

At  Silver  Kay,  nearly  south  of  Sitka,  the  earliest 
indications  of  gold  were  found  in  the  archipelago. 
Soon  after  the  California  discoveries  of  1848,  the 
Emperor  of  Russia  became  convinced  that  there 
must  be  mineral  wealth  in  his  possessions  in  America. 
The  directors  of  the  fur  company  ignored  all  his  first 
suggestions  about  undertaking  a  search  expedition, 
and,  as  they  did  not  want  their  own  business  intcrferetl 
with,  gave  the  hostility  of  the  natives  always  as  an 
excuse  for  not  making  any  attempts.  Their  course 
was  quite  the  same  as  that  followed  later  by  the  Hutl- 
son  Bay  Company's  agents,  when  gold  was  discovered 
on  the  Frazer  River  and  in  the  Cariboo  regions  of 
l^ritish  Columbia.  The  Emperor,  persisting  in  his 
notion,  sent  out  from  St.  Petersburg,  in  1854,  a 
promising  and  adventurous  young  mining  engineer, 
named  Dorovin,  who,  beginning  at  Cook's  Inlet, 
searched  the  coast  down  to  Sitka  without  making 
any  great  discoveries.  Arrived  at  Sitka,  the  gay 
north'  est  capital,  he  plunged  into  all  the  social  dissi- 
pations, and,  after  a  year's  idleness,  sent  back  a 
report  condemning  the  country.  He  made  no  attempt 
to  search  for  minerals  on  Baranoff  Island,  and  some 
years  later,  when  a  Russian  officer  found  a  piece  of 
float  gold  in  Silver  Bay,  the  governor  quieted  the 
interest  without  resorting  to  the  knout,  as  old  Bara- 
noff did.  Years  afterwards  a  United  States  soldier 
found  float  gold  in  the  same  place,  and,  getting  help 


THE  Sirh'A\   AHVIIIPELAOO. 


197 


of 
his 
a 
;er, 

et, 


m^- 


from  the  garrison,  discovered    the   quartz   ledge  of 
Haranoff  Island. 

On  Round  Mountain,  southeast  of  Sitka,  are  situ- 
ated the  Great  Eastern,  the  Stewart,  and  other  mines, 
tliat  attracted  great  attention  at  tlie  time  of  their  dis- 
covery in  1 8/ I  and  1872.  The  pioneers  in  this  mining 
district  were  Doyle  and  Haley,  two  soldiers,  who  had 
lived  in  the  mining  districts  of  California  and  Nevada. 
Nicholas  Haley  is  the  most  energetic  of  miners,  and 
has  carefully  prospected  the  region  about  Sitka.  He 
has  found  stringers  of  quartz  on  Indian  River,  and 
has  more  valuable  claims  at  the  head  of  Silver  Bay 
than  on  the  long  ledge  cropping  out  on  the  slopes  of 
Round  Mountain.  The  mines  on  this  ledge  have  had 
many  vicissitudes,  have  changed  hands  m  my  times, 
have  been  involved  in  lawsuits,  while  no  one  could 
hold  a  valid  title  to  a  foot  of  mineral  land  in  Alaska  ; 
and  finally,  through  unfortunate  management,  the 
work  was  stopped,  and  the  mills  have  stood  idle  for 
years.  The  want  of  civil  government,  or  adequate 
protection  for  cai)italists,  has  prevented  the  owners 
from  risking  anything  more  in  the  development  of 
these  mines,  although  the  assays  and  the  results  of 
working  proved  these  Sitka  mines  to  be  valuable 
properties. 


198 


aOUTUEHN  ALASKA, 


\  IM 


•    CHAPTER    XIV. 


SITKA 


AN    HISTORICAL    SKETCH. 


!!! 


FOR  a  town  of  its  size,  strange,  old,  tumble-down, 
moss-grown  Sitka  has  had  an  eventful  history 
from  first  to  last.  Claiming  this  northwestern  part 
of  America  by  right  of  the  discoveries  made  by  Beh- 
ring  and  others  in  the  last  century,  the  Russians 
soon  sent  out  colonies  from  Siberia.  The  earliest 
Russian  settlements  were  on  the  Aleutian  Islands, 
and  thence,  moving  eastward,  the  fur  company,  whose 
president  was  the  colonial  governor,  and  appointed 
by  the  Crown,  established  its  chief  headquarters  at 
Kodiak  island  in  1790.  Kodiak  still  lives  in  tradi- 
tion of  the  Russian  inhabitants  of  the  archipelago  as 
a  sunny,  summery  place,  blessed  with  the  best  climate 
on  this  coast. 

Tchirikoff,  the  commander  of  one  of  Behring's  ships, 
was  the  first  white  man  to  visit  the  site  of  Sitka,  and 
two  boatloads  of  men  were  seized  and  put  to  death 
by  the  savage  Sitkans,  July  15,  1741. 

The  first  settlement  was  made  in  1800  at  Starri 
Gavan  Bay,  just  north  of  the  present  town,  and 
the  place  was  duly  dedicated  to  the  Archangel 
Gabriel  and  left  in  charge  of  a  small  company  of 
Russians.  In  the  same  year,  when  the  rest  of  the 
world  was  shaken  with  the  great  battles  of  Marengo 


THE  SITKA y  ARCHIPELAGO, 


199 


ips, 

land 

path 

larri 
land 
igel 
of 
the 
[ngo 


i 


and  Hohenlinden,  the  Indians  rose  and  massacred  the 
new  settlers  and  destroyed  their  buildini^s.  Haranoff 
was  then  governor  of  tiie  colony,  a  Heree  old  fellow, 
who  bej;an  life  as  a  trader  in  Western  Siberia,  ami  was 
slowly  raised  to  official  eminence.  He  established  the 
settlement  at  Kodiak  before  he  made  the  venture  at 
Sitka,  and  when  he  heard  of  the  tiestriiction  of  his  new 
station,  immediately  arranged  to  rebuild  it.  In  1804 
he  tried  it  over  a';ain,  building  the  chief  warehouse 
on  the  small  (iibraltar  of  Katalan's  Rock  where  the 
castle  now  stands,  and  dedicating  the  place  to  the 
Archangel  Michael.  Haranoff  was  ennobled,  and, 
moving  his  headquarters  to  Sitka,  remained  in  charge 
until  1818.  Me  opened  trade  and  negotiations  with 
the  United  States  and  many  countries  of  the  I'acific  ; 
he  welcomed  John  Jacob  Astor's  ships  to  this  harbor 
in  1810,  and  made  with  them  contracts  for  the  Canton 
trade,  that  were  sadly  interrupted  by  the  war  of  18 12 
between  our  country  and  luigland. 

In  Washington  Irving's  "  Astoria  "  there  is  a  life- 
like sketch  of  this  hard-drinking,  hard-swear  nig  old 
tyrant,  and  the  picture  does  not  present  an  attractive 
view  of  life  at  New  Archangel,  or  Sheetka.  In  181 1 
Baranoff  sent  out  the  colony  under  Alexander  Kuskoff, 
and  established  a  settlement  at  Fort  Ross,  in  Cali- 
fornia, in  the  redwood  country  of  the  coast  north  of 
San  Francisco.  Grain  and  vegetables  were  rai.sed 
there  in  great  quantities  for  the  northern  settle- 
ments for  the  space  of  thirty  years,  when  the  Czar 
ordered  his  subjects  to  withdraw  from  Mexican  ter- 
ritory. 

Baranoff  ruled  the  colony  ^'ith  a  rod  of  iron,  and 
his  absolute  power  of  life  and  death  over  those  under 


200 


tiOUTllKHN   ALASKA. 


him,  and  the  free  use  of  the  ktioiit,  kept  the  turbulent 
Indians,  Creoles,  and  Siberian  renegades  in  good 
order.  He  died  at  sea  on  his  way  home  to  Russia, 
and  succeeding  him  as  governor  came  Caj)tain  Hague- 
meister,  and  then  a  long  line  of  noble  Russians,  gen- 
erally chosen  from  among  the  higher  officers  of  the 
navy. 

Under  Russian  rule  the  colony  ran  along  in  j^lea- 
sant  routine  ;  the  southeastern  coast  was  for  a  time 
leased  to  the  Hudson  Hay  Company,  and  their  prox- 
imity and  the  slow  encroachments  of  the  Knglish  in 
trade  soon  aroused  Russia  to  a  realization  of  the  dan- 
ger that  threatened  this  distant  colony  in  the  event 
of  a  war.  Russian  America  was  first  offered  for  sale 
to  the  United  States  during  the  Crimean  war  in 
1854,  by  Baron  Stoeckl,  who  afterwards  concluded 
the  treaty  of  purchase  in  1867.  In  1854  the  Kng- 
lish threatened  the  town  of  Petrapaulovski  on  the 
Kamschatkan  coast,  and  the  Russians  foresaw  the 
blockading  and  bombarding  of  their  towns  on  the 
American  side.  This  first  offer  was  declined  by 
President  Pierce,  and  later  negotiations  came  to 
naught  in  President  Buchanan's  day,  when  an  offer 
of  ^5,ooo,CKX)  was  declined  by  Russia.  Robert  J. 
Walker,  who  assisted  in  drawing  up  the  legal  docu- 
ments of  transfer  when  we  did  finally  buy  the  terri- 
tory, stated  once  that  during  Polk's  administration  the 
Czar  offered  Russian  America  to  the  United  States 
for  the  mere  payment  of  government  incumbrances 
and  cost  of  transfer.  Wily  old  Prince  Gortschakoff 
had  to  tell  it,  too,  when  his  envoy  made  such  a  shrewd 
sale  for  him,  that  his  master  was  for  years  anxious  to 
get  rid  of  this  distant  and  unprotected  colony  at  any 


Tin:  SITKA  \   A  li(  11 1 r HI. .  I  dO. 


201 


the 
the 
by    ■ 
to 
ffer 

|rt  J. 

ocu- 

erri- 
the 

:ates 

nces 
koff 

rewd 
s  to 
any 


sacrifice,  provided,  always,  that  it  did  not  fall  into  the 
hands  of  the  l'Jif;lisli,  who  wanted  it  so  hadly. 

In  1861  Russia  and  the  United  States  held  council 
in  rc^^'ucl  to  establishing;  a  telegraph  line  from  this 
country  to  ICurope,  via  Russian  America,  Hehring 
Straits,  and  Siberia.  l'\)ur  years  later  an  expedition 
was  sent  out  by  the  Western  Union  Te1e<j;raph  Com- 
pany, and  several  ships  and  a  large  corps  of  engineers, 
surveyors,  and  scientists,  were  engaged  in  exploring 
the  coast  from  the  United  States  boundary  line  north- 
ward to  the  \'ukon  country,  and  along  the  Asiatic 
coast  to  the  mouth  of  the  Amoor  River.  Over 
S3, 000,000  were  expended  in  these  urveys,  and  .1  tele- 
grajih  line  was  erected  for  some  hundred  miles  up  the 
Hritish  Columbia  coast,  reaching  to  a  point  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Skeena  River,  that  brought  Sitka  within 
three  hundred  miles  of  telegraphic  communication 
instead  of  eight  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  as  has  been 
its  condition  since  the  scheme  was  given  up.  After 
two  years'  work,  the  company  abandoned  the  under- 
taking and  recalled  its  surveying  parties.  The 
demonstrated  success  of  the  Atlantic  cable,  and 
the  difficulty  of  maintaining  the  line  through  the 
dense  forest  regions  of  the  coast  and  the  uninhabited 
moors  of  the  North,  induced  the  company  to  give 
up  the  j)lan.  Frof.  Dall,  of  the  Smithsonian  Insti- 
tute ;  Whymper,  the  great  I'.nglish  mountain  climber  ; 
iVof.  Rothrockcr,  the  botanist,  and  Col.  Thomas  W. 
Knox,  who  accompanied  different  parties  of  the 
Western  Union  Telegraph  Company  expedition, 
have  written  intf  esting  books  of  their  life  and 
travels  while  connected  with  this  great  enterprise. 

As  the  time  approached  for  the  expiration  of  the 


"■''-■'^•- '•■'»'''. ^^^^S!!f«S! 


MriuwiMHMMidliMyuMMfllil 


202 


SO UTHEILV  A  L  A  SKA. 


;| 


;,( 


ill. 


m 


.J 


lis 


lease  by  which  the  Hudson  Bay  Company  held  the 
franchise  of  the  Russian-American  Fur  Company, 
great  desire  was  manifested  by  citizens  on  the  Pacific 
coast  that  the  United  States  should  purchase  the 
colony.  The  legislature  of  Washington  Territory  sent 
a  memorial  to  Congress  in  January,  i866,  urging  the 
purchase  of  the  Russian  possessions,  and  it  was  fol- 
lowed by  earnest  petitions  from  all  parts  of  the 
Pacific  coast.  A  syndicate  of  fur  traders  even  pro- 
posed to  buy  the  country  of  Russia  on  their  private 
account,  and  sent  a  representative  to  Washington  to 
consult  with  Secretary  Seward  in  regard  to  having 
the  United  States  establish  a  protectorate  over  their 
domain  in  that  case.  The  Hudson  Bay  Company's 
lease  was  to  expire  in  June,  1867,  and  in  the  spring 
of  that  year  the  plan  of  purchase  by  the  United 
States  government  assumed  definite  shape.  Negotia- 
tions were  entered  into  by  Secretary  Seward  and 
Baron  Stoeckl,  th'^  Russian  minister,  and,  though 
conducted  with  great  secrecy,  were  soon  rumored 
about.  At  that  time  President  Johnson  was  plung- 
ing into  the  most  stormy  part  of  his  career,  threats 
of  impeachment  were  In  the  air,  and  the  articles  had 
even  been  discussed  by  the  House  of  Representatives 
before  its  adjournment,  March  4,  1867.  All  of  the 
preceding  winter  Washington  had  been  full  of  rumors 
of  great  schemes,  looking  to  a  drain  on  the  Treasury, 
and  the  House  had  grown  wary  and  vigilant.  Mexi- 
can patriots,  from  three  different  camps,  were 
beseeching  the  aid  of  Congress  and  the  State  Depa  t- 
ment.  The  Jaurez  and  Ortega  factions  were  implor- 
ing loans  of  from  $50,000,000  to  $80,000,000,  and 
Maximilian's  emissaries  were  doing  their  best  in  the 


if^.j. 


^-^..-.v* 


THE  SITKAX    MtCltlPKLAdO. 


2(»;; 


f  i 


way  of  diplomacy  to  aid  the  fortunes  of  their  imperial 
master,  who  had  just  taken  the  held  against  the  in- 
surgents. With  such  discords  at  iiome,  Secretary 
Seward  projected  a  hiliiian.  stroke  of  foreign  jujlicy, 
and  counted  upon  drawing  off  some  of  the  hostile 
fires,  and  thrilling  patriotic  breasts  by  this  purchase 
of  Russian  America,  which  should  carry  the  stars 
and  stripes  to  the  uttermost  limits  of  the  north,  and 
extend  our  dominion  3,000  miles  west  of  the  (iolden 
Gate  of  California  to  that  last  island  of  Attn  in  the 
Aleutian  chain,  "o'er  which  the  earliest  morn  of 
Asia  smiles." 

On  the  evening  of  the  29th  of  March,  l^aron 
Stoeckl  went  to  Secretary  Seward's  residence  on 
Lafayette  Square,  joyfully  waving  the  cable  message 
that  gave  i.he  Czar's  approval  to  the  plan,  as  then 
outlined.  Baron  Stoeckl  proposed  that  they  should 
draw  up  the  treaty  on  the  following  day,  but  the 
Secretary  said,  "  No  !  we  will  do  it  now,  and  send  it 
to  the  Senate  to-morrow." 

There  were  no  telephones  at  the  capitol  then,  and 
messengers  were  sent  in  every  direction  to  summon 
Secretary  Seward's  assistants,  and  open  and  light 
the  building  at  Fourteenth  and  S  Streets,  then  occu- 
pied by  the  State  Department.  Huron  Stoeckl  hunted 
up  his  secretaries  and  chancellor,  and  at  midnight 
the  company  assembled,  including  .Senator  Charles 
Sumner,  Chairman  of  the  Senate  Committee  on 
Foreign  Relations.  Leutze  has  preserved  the  scene 
in  a  painting  owned  by  Hon.  Frederick  W.  Seward,  of 
Montrose,  N.  Y.  Secretary  Seward  and  his  assist- 
ants, Messrs.  Hunter  and  Chew,  and  M.  Bodisco, 
Secretary  of  the  Russian   Legation,  form  p.  central 


■'-%-;uryrifl6i^^ 


\.  •-«»»*  M»f^iiirJ« 


204 


sou  THE  UN  A  LA  SKA. 


h^ 


group.  Baron  Stoeckl  stands  beside  the  large  globe 
of  the  world,  and  the  lights  of  the  chandelier  over- 
head fall  full  upon  Russian  America,  to  which  Baron 
Stoeckl  is  pointing  his  hand.  Senator  Sumner  and 
Mr,  Frederick  Seward  occupy  a  sofa  in  a  corner  back 
of  this  group,  holding  a  school  atlas  before  them. 

The  signatures  were  affixed  to  the  treaty  at  four 
o'clock  on  the  morning  of  March  30.  The  illu- 
mination of  the  State  Department  at  that  unusual 
hour  attracted  suspicious  attention,  and  it  was  known 
that  something  of  imp>,rt  was  going  on.  It  was 
intended  to  keep  the  matter  wholly  secret  until  the 
Senate  had  ratified  the  treaty,  but  journalistic  enter- 
prise ran  high,  and  a  New  York  reporter  shadowed 
the  Secretary  of  State,  and,  hanging  on  to  the  back 
of  his  carriage  as  he  drove  home  with  Biron  Stoeckl 
that  night,  caught  an  inkling  of  the  terms  of  the 
treaty  and  gave  them  to  th^  world. 

On  the  same  day  the  treaty  was  sent  to  the  Senate, 
then  convened  in  extra  session,  and,  discussed  in 
secret  conclaves,  vvas  confirmed  on  the  loth  of  April, 
chiefly  through  the  agency  of  Charles  Sumner,  who, 
although  not  favorable  to  the  measure  at  first,  arose 
on  the  tenth  day  and  delivered  a  sjieech,  which  was 
one  of  the  finest  efforts  of  his  life,  and  an  ep'tome  of 
all  that  was  known  and  had  been  written  up  to  date 
concerning  Russian^  America,  livery  chart,  every 
narrative  of  the  old  discoverers,  every  scientific  work 
and  special  report,  was  consulted  by  that  great  scholar, 
and  his  speech  "on  the  cession  of  Russian  America" 
is  still  a  work  of  authority  and  reference  to  those 
who  would  study  the  question. 

There  was  great  surprise  when  the  terms  of  the 


ri/E  SITKA  N   AHt'llIl'KLAiiO. 


205 


te, 
in 

il, 
o, 
se 
as 
of 
te 
cry 
Irk 

ir, 

»t 

[se 
he 


treaty  were  made  known.  Tlu'  wits  went  to  work 
with  their  jokes  on  the  "'  Ksquimaux  Acquisition 
Treaty,"  and  Sir  Frederick  Bruce,  the  British  Minis- 
ter, was  so  chagrined  at  the  news,  that  he  telegraphed 
to  the  Karl  of  Derhy  for  instructions  to  protest 
against  the  acceptance  of  the  treaty.  It  was  ratified 
by  the  Senate  by  a  vote  of  thirty  yeas  and  two  nays, 
the  opposing  twain  being  Senators  Fessenden  and 
Ferry. 

While  the  matter  was  pending  there  were  many 
conclaves  and  dinner  councils  at  the  residence  of  the 
Secretary  of  State.  The  ''  polar  bear  treaty  "  and  the 
"  l^isquimaux  senators  "  were  connnon  names  at  the 
capital,  and  of  the  Secretary's  dinner  parties  one  scribe 
wrote:  "There  was  roast  treaty,  boiled  treaty,  treaty 
in  bottles,  treaty  in  decanters,  treaty  garnished  with 
appointments  to  office,  treaty  in  statistics,  treaty  in 
military  point  of  view,  treaty  in  territorial  grandeur 
view,  treaty  clad  in  furs,  ornamented  vvith  walrus 
teeth,  fringed  with  timber,  and  flopping  with  fish." 
Other  menus  gave  "icebergs  on  toast,"  "seal  flippers 
f rappee,"  and  "blubber  au  naturcl." 

It  was  a  great  puzzle  for  a  while  to  know  what 
name  should  be  given  to  the  new  territory,  as 
Russian  America  vvoukl  no  longer  do.  The  wits 
suggested  "Walrussia,"  "American  Siberia,"  "Zero 
Islands,"  and  "Polaria,"  but  at  Charles  Sumner's 
suggestion  it  was  called  "Alaska,"  the  name  by  which 
the  natives  designated  to  Captain  Cook  the  great 
peninsula  on  the  south  coast,  and  which,  translated, 
means  "  the  great  land."  The  articles  were  exchanged 
and  the  treaty  proclaimed  by  the  President,  June  20, 
1867.     Secretary  Seward  was  more  than   delighted 


■**  tonjiwuii  II 


2()(> 


SOUTH KliS  A  LA  SKA. 


I  1 , 


fi       ■: 


M 


t      .   ! 


I,.: 


with  the  success  of  his  efforts,  and  the  day  after  the 
proclamation  said  :  "The  farm  is  sokl  and  l^elongs  to 
U»»"  Me  felt  sure  that  he  had  the  advantage  of  his 
enemies  .his  time,  and  had  gone  far  enough  north  to 
counteract  any  leaning  or  sentiment  toward  the 
South,  that  he  had  been  accused  of  harboring.  He 
proposed  to  make  General  Garfield,  then  fresh  in  his 
military  honors,  a  first  Governor  of  the  Territory, 
and  later  he  intended  to  divide  the  country  into  six 
territorial  governments. 

The  President  and  his  premier  lost  no  time  in 
clinching  the  bargain,  and  immediately  set  about  to 
receive  and  occupy  the  Territcu^y,  without  waiting  for 
the  House  of  Representatives  to  appropriate  the 
57,200,000  of  gold  coin  to  pay  for  it  with.  Br'gadier- 
General  Lovell  H.  Rousseau  was  furnished  with  a 
handsome  silk  flag  and  many  instructions  by  Secre- 
tary Seward,  and  left  New  York  the  same  August 
in  com])any  with  Captain  Alexis  Pestcl -^nroff  and 
Captain  Koskul,  who  acted  as  Commissioners  on  the 
part  of  Russia.  Gen.  Jefferson  C.  Davis,  in  com- 
mand of  250  men,  was  ordered  to  meet  him  at  San 
Francisco,  and  left  there  at  the  same  time  as  the 
Commissioners,  on  September  27.  (icn.  Rousseau 
and  his  colleagues  were  taken  on  board  the  man-of-war 
Ossipvc,  then  in  command  of  Captain  Kmmons,  and 
when  they  reached  Sitka,  on  the  morning  of  Octo- 
ber 18,  1867,  found  the  troop  ships  already  at  anchor 
there.  Three  United  States  ships,  the  Ossipec  under 
Captain  Emmons,  the  Jamcstoicn  unrler  command  of 
Captain  McDougall,  and  the  Resaca  under  Captain 
Bradford,  were  flying  their  colors  in  the  harbor  that 
gay  October  morning,  and  the  Russian  flag  fluttered 


I 


THE  SIT  KAN   AHCHII'ELAGO. 


2i)'i 


from  every  staff  and  roof-lop.  At  half  past  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  Unitetl  States  tro(jps,  a 
company  of  Russian  soldiers,  the  ^rouj)  of  officials, 
3ome  citizens  and  Indians,  assembled  on  the  terrace 
in  front  of  the  castle.  The  ceremony  of  transfer  was 
very  simple,  the  battery  of  the  Ossipcc  startin^:^  the 
national  salute  to  the  Russian  flatj;,  when  the  order 
was  given  to  lower  it,  and  the  Russian  water  battery 
on  the  wharf  returning,  in  alternation  of  shots,  the 
national  salute  to  the  United  States  flag,  as  it  was 
raised.  The  Russian  flag  caught  in  the  ropes  coming 
down,  wrapped  itself  round  and  round  the  flag- 
staff, and  although  the  border  was  torn  off,  the  body 
clung  to  the  staff  of  native  pine.  The  Russian 
soldiers  could  not  reach  it  until  a  boatswain's  chair 
was  rigged  to  the  halyards,  and  then  one  of  them 
untwisting  the  flag,  and  not  hearing  Captain  Pest- 
chouroff's  order  to  bring  it  down,  flung  it  off,  and  it 
fell  like  a  canopy  over  the  bayonets  of  the  Russian 
soldiers. 

The  rain  began  then,  and  the  beautiful  I'rincess 
Maksoutoff  wept  when  the  Russian  colors  finally 
fell.  The  superstitious  affected  to  find  an  omen 
in  this  incident,  but  the  American  flag  ran  up  gayly, 
and  when  the  bombardment  of  national  salutes 
was  over,  Captain  Testchouroff  said  :  "  By  authority 
of  his  Majesty  the  Kmperor  of  Russia,  I  transfer  to 
the  United  States  the  Territorv  of  Alaska!  "  Prince 
Maksoutoff  handed  over  the  insignia  of  his  office  as 
governor,  and  the  thing  was  done.  There  was  a 
dinner  and  a  ball  at  the  castle,  an  illumination  and 
fireworks  that  night,  and  the  bald  eagle  screamed  on 
all  the  hill  tops.      The    Russian    citizens   began    to 


2()M 


aouriiEuy  Alaska. 


.  ,  ]\ 


i>'    uV. 

-1  'h 


f   ■   1 


Wi 


leave  straightway,  and  in  a  few  months  fifty  ships  and 
four  hundred  peoi)]e  had  sailed  away  from  Sitka,  and 
the  desolation  of  American  ownership  began.  Only 
three  families  of  the  educated  class  and  of  pure  Rus- 
sian blood  now  live  there,  to  '-emember  and  relate 
the  tales  of  better  days.  After  this  formal  transfer, 
garrisons  of  United  States  troops  were  established 
at  Fort  Tongass,  near  the  southern  l)oundary  line,  at 
Fort  Wrangell,  at  Sitka  and  Kodiak,  under  orders 
of  the  Department  of  the  Columbia  ;  but  the  ship 
carrying  the  troops  to  establish  a  fort  on  Cook's  Inlet 
struck  a  rock  and  went  to  pieces  when  near  its  desti- 
nation. All  the  lives  were  saved,  and  the  project  of 
a  fort  at  that  point  was  then  abandoned. 

Immense  sums  were  paid  by  the  government  for 
the  transpo^-tation  of  troops  and  freight  in  the  few 
months  after  the  occupancy,  and,  by  the  time  Con- 
gress met,  the  United  States  had  a  firm  hold  on  the 
new  possession.  There  were  exciting  times  at  Sitka 
for  a  few  months,  and  the  first  rush  of  enterprising 
and  unscrupulous  Americans  quite  astonished  the  de- 
parting Russians,  who  were  unused  to  the  tricks  of 
the  adventurers,  who  alwavs  hurry  to  a  new  countrv. 

I'rofessor  George  Davidson  was  sent  with  eight 
assistants  to  make  a  report  on  the  general  features 
and  resources  of  the  country,  and  from  July  to  No- 
vember he  cruised  along  the  coast  on  the  revenue 
cutter  Lincoln.  He  was  mercilessly  cross-examined 
by  the  special  committee  of  Congress  during  the 
exciting  winter  that  followed  at  Washington. 

Secretary  Seward  trod  a  thorny  pathway,  and  he 
and  his  newly-acquired  Territory  were  the  theme  of 
every  wit  and  joker  in  the  public  prints.    Congress  was 


:a 


ij," 


it 


TUE  SITKAN   AMCUIPELAUO. 


209 


in  an  ugly  frame  of  mind,  and  even  the  party  leaders 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  felt  dubious  about 
getting  an  appropriation  to  pay  for  Alaska.  The 
wildest  reports  of  the  country  and  its  resources  were 
current,  and  while  one  sage  represented  it  as  a  gar- 
den of  wild  roses,  and  a  place  for  linen  dusters,  the 
next  one  said  the  only  products  were  icebergs  and 
furs,  and  the  future  settlers  would  cultivate  their 
fields  with  snow-ploughs. 

The  irrepressible  Nasby  wrote  :  "  The  dreary  relic 
of  dijilomacy  to  the  south  of  the  North  Pole  is  a  land 
reservation  for  the  Blair  family,"  and  he  advised 
President  Johnson  to  "swing  around  the  circle,"  and 
visit  "  this  land  of  valuable  snow  and  merchantaole 
ice." 

In  a  less  humorous  vein  a  Democratic  editor  said  : 
"Congress  is  not  willing  to  take  510,000,000  from 
the  Treasury  to  pay  for  the  Secretary  of  State's 
questionable  distinction  of  buying  a  vast  uninhabit- 
able desert  with  which  to  cover  the  thousand  mortifi- 
cations and  defeats  which  have  punished  his  pilotage 
of  Andrew  Johnson  through  his  shi})wrecked  policy 
of  reconstruction.  The  treaty  has  a  clause  binding 
us  to  exercise  jurisdiction  over  the  Territory  and  give 
government  to  forty  thousand  inhabitants  now  crawl- 
ing over  it  in  sni^w-shoes.  Without  a  cent  of  revenue 
to  be  derived  from  it,  we  will  hav^e  to  keep  regiments 
of  soldiers  and  six  men-of-war  up  there,  and  insti- 
tute a  Territorial  government.  No  energy  of  the 
American  people  will  be  sufficient  to  make  mining- 
speculation  profitable  in  60°  north  latitude.  Ninety- 
nine  one-hundredths  of  the  territory  is  absolutely 
worthless." 


imidmm 


210 


SOUTirKHN   A  LA  SKA. 


In  this  spirit  tlie  thing  went  on  through  all  of  that 
stormy  winter.  The  impeachment  trial  was  held,  and 
President  Johnson  acquitted  May  17,  1867.  On  the 
following  day  General  N.  P.  Hanks  introduced  a  bill 
appropriating  $7,200,000  to  pay  for  Alaska,  and  as  it 
iiung  uncertain  for  weeks,  it  was  determined  to  get  the 
apj)ropriation  through  in  a  deficiency  bill,  if  the  Banks 
bill  failed.  At  a  night  session  on  the  30th  of  June, 
with  the  House  in  committee  of  the  whole,  and 
General  Garfield  in  the  chair,  General  Banks  made  a 
most  eloquent  speech,  painting  Alaska  in  glowing- 
colors  and  luxuriant  phrase,  and  winning  the  suffrages 
of  the  disaffected  ones  on  his  own  side  by  the  audacity 
of  his  genius.  Judge  Loughbridge,  of  Iowa,  opposed 
the  bill,  and  three  Democrats  (Boyer  of  Pennsylvania, 
Pruyn  of  New  York,  and  Johnson  of  California), 
made  ringing  speeches  in  its  favor.  The  next  day 
C.  C.  Washburn  made  a  severe  speech  against  it, 
and  Maynarti,  of  Tennessee,  spoke  for  it.  Then  the 
grand  "old  commoner,"  Thaddeus  Stevens,  made  an 
oration  in  its  favor,  ending  up  with  a  fish  story  of  the 
skipper  who  ran  his  ship  aground  on  the  herring  in 
Behring  Sea,  and  ran  it  so  high  and  so  dry  on  the  wrig- 
gling fish,  that  it  broke  in  two.  On  the  14th  of  July 
the  bill  passed  by  ninety-eight  yeas,  forty-nine  nays. 
Fifty-three  members  not  voting,  endangered  its  suc- 
cess, but  the  House  showed  its  temper  by  aclaujic 
insisting  that  hereafter  it  should  take  part  in  the 
consideration  of  treaties,  as  well  as  the  Senate.  Two 
weeks  later  the  Czar  was  chinking  his  bags  of  Ameri- 
can gold,  w^hen  dust  again  rose  from  the  State  De- 
partment. The  cost  of  the  cable  messages  sent  by 
the  two   governments,  in  regard  to  the  negotiations 


THE  srrKAN  ARC  in  PEL  AGO. 


211 


IV 


lie 
,vo 


by 
ns 


and  the  transfer,  amounted  to  nearly  $30,ocx).  When 
their  share  of  the  bill  was  presented  to  the  Russian 
government,  they  refused  to  pay  it,  claiming  that  the 
treaty  provided  that  the  United  States  should  pay 
$7,200,000  and  all  the  expenses  of  transfer.  There 
were  polite  messa<jjes  between  the  tliplomats,  but  at 
last  the  cable  comi)any  reduced  the  bill,  and  our 
State  r/ei)artment  i)aid  for  all  of  it. 

In  tlie  enel  many  statements  and  prophecies  con- 
cerninjj^  the  Territory  have  been  disproved,  but  we 
received  a  country  of  580,107  square  miles,  equal  in 
area  to  one  sixth  of  the  whole  United  States,  and  for 
this  great  empire  we  paid  at  the  rate  of  one  and 
nineteen-twentieths  of  a  cent  per  acre.  The  Alex- 
ander archipelago  itself,  comprising  1,100  islands, 
and  an  area  of  14,142  geographical  square  miles, 
will  soon  prove  itself  worth  the  purchase-money 
alone,  when  it  is  explored,  developetl,  and  settled. 
Of  the  strip  of  main  land,  thirty  miles  wide  and  three 
hundred  miles  long,  off  which  the  islands  are  an- 
chored, Sir  George  SinijLson,  Governor-in-Chief  of 
the  Hudson  Hay  Compai;y,  once  said  that  all  the 
British  ])ossessions  in  the  interior,  adjacent  to  it, 
were  useless,  if  this  const  strip  were  not  leased  to 
them.  For  years  Great  Britain  made  overtures  to 
buy  this  strip,  and  hordes  of  its  mining  adventurers 
made  threats  to  drive  the  Russians  away  ;  yet,  by 
the  hooks  and  crooks  of  diplomacy,  it  came  into  the 
possession  of  the  United  States,  while  the  southern 
border  of  this  strip  is  distant  six  hundred  and  forty 
miles  from  our  once  northern  boundary,  the  forty- 
ninth  parallel.  By  leasing  those  tiny  Seal  Islands, 
in  Behring  Sea,  to  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company, 


lilDIMJIWllW «— ■— fi 


212 


SOUTHERN   ALASKA. 


!M; 


the  government  has  derived  a  revenue  of  over  $300,000 
per  annum,  and  the  Territory  has,  in  this  way,  paid  a 
fair  percentage  of  interest  on  the  purchase-money, 
since  it  has  been  virtually  at  no  expense  to  protect  it, 
or  keep  up  a  form  of  government.  In  view  of  the 
later  mineral  discoveries,  it  is  said  that  Douglass  Is- 
land alone  is  worth  all  that  the  United  States  gave 
for  the  Territory,  and  events  are  slowly  proving  the 
foresight  and  wisdom  of  Mr.  Seward  in  acquiring  it. 

The  Russians  knew  almost  nothing  of  th*^  topo- 
graphy or  resources  of  the  country  when  they  passed 
it  over  to  us,  as  the  directors  of  the  fur  company, 
having  absolute  control,  had  made  everything  sub- 
servient to  their  interests  aiul  trade.  A  clause  in 
their  lease  provided  that  the  government  shoukl  have 
the  right  to  all  mineral  lands  discovered,  so  that  they 
took  good  care  to  discourage  exj^lorers  ant!  prcjspect- 
ors.  Baranoff  is  even  said  to  have  given  thirty 
lashes  to  a  man  who  brought  in  a  specinien  of  gold- 
bearing  quartz,  and  warned  him  of  worse  punishment 
if  he  found  any  more  ore.  All  the  records  and 
papers  of  the  fur  company  were  turned  over  to  the 
United  States,  and  the  archives  at  St.  Petersburg 
were  searched  for  any  documents  or  reports  pertain- 
ing to  Russian  America.  Two  shelves  in  the  State 
Department  Library  at  Washington  are  filled  with 
these  manuscript  records  of  early  Alaskan  events. 
They  are  written  in  clear  Russian  text,  as  even  as 
print,  and  forty  of  the  volumes  are  archive  reports 
of  the  directors  and  agents  of  the  fur  company. 
Fifty  of  them  are  office  records  and  journals,  and  one 
bulky  volume  contains  the  ships'  logs  that  were  of 
sufficier*".  value  and  interest  to  warrant  their  preser- 


ain- 
tatc 
vith 
nts. 
as 
orts 

my. 

one 
ft  of 

ser- 


1 


THE  i^llKAIi  AHClIirKLAdO. 


213 


vation.  None  of  tlu;in  liavc  been  translated,  except 
as  students  and  specialists  have  made  notes  from 
them  for  their  own  use.  Mr.  Ivan  Petroff  y;ave 
these  archives  a  thorough  inspection  in  gatiiering  the 
materials  for  his  valuable  Census  Report  of  1880. 


E  ^fl 


«jV^<'--1-'-'-'-''      -      l't^>!K»'>' 


214 


SOVTIlKliS  ALASKA. 


CHAPTKK    XV. 


SITKA.         nrSTOKV    SUCCKRHING    THK    TRANSFER. 


,    ■  1  ■' 

Ml 


If   ui 


AGRKAT  event  in  the  history  of  Sitka  after  the 
transfer  was  the  visit  of  lv\-Secretary  Seward 
and  his  party,  and  their  stay  was  the  occasion  of  the 
last  ^ala  season  that  the  phice  has  known.  Mr. 
Seward  and  his  son  had  gone  out  to  San  Francisco 
by  the  newly-completed  lines  of  the  Union  and 
Central  Pacific  Railroad,  intending  to  continue  their 
travels  into  Mexico.  He  casually  mentioned  before 
Mr.  VV.  C.  Ralston,  the  banker,  that  he  hoped  some 
time  to  go  to  his  territory  of  Alaska.  Within  a  few 
hours  after  that  Mr.  Ralston  wrote  him  that  there  were 
two  steamers  at  his  service,  if  he  would  accept  one 
for  a  trip  to  Alaska.  Hie  fur  company  offered  their 
steamer,  the  I'idcliter,  and  Mr.  Ikni  Il:>lladay  put  the 
steamer  Active  at  the  disposal  of  Air.  Seward  and  his 
party.  Mr.  Holladay's  offer  was  accepted,  and  his 
best  and  favorite  commander,  Captain  C.  C.  Dall,  was 
given  charge  of  the  Active^  and  everything  {provided 
for  a  long  yachting  trip.  The  others  invited  by  Mr. 
Seward  to  partake  of  this  magnificent  hospitality 
were  his  son  Frederick  W.  Seward  and  his  wife, 
Judge  Hastings,  of  San  Francisco,  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Smith,  of  St.  Louis,  Hon.  W.  S.  Dodge,  revenue 
collector  and  mayor  of  Sitka,  Hon,  John  H.  Kinkead, 


THE  SITK.W    .\H(  UIPElAdO. 


215 


tew 

;ere 

one 

iieir 

the 

his 

his 

was 

lideil 
Mr. 

tility 

Lvife, 

IMis. 

niue 

iad, 


postmaster  and  post  trader  at  Sitka,  and  Captain 
FrankHn  of  the  British  Navy,  a  nejjhew  of  the 
lamented  Sir  John  l^'rankhn.  They  left  San  Fran- 
cisco on  the  13th  ol  July,  1869,  aiul,  touching  at 
Victoria,  reached  Sitka  July  30.  The  Kx-Secretary 
was  received  with  a  military  salute  on  landing,  antl 
went  to  the  house  of  Mayor  Dodge.  He  kept  the 
Russian  Sabbath  by  attending  service  in  the  Greek 
church  on  our  Saturday,  and  the  American  Sabbath, 
by  listening  to  the  {oost  chaplain  in  the  Lutheran 
church  on  t'^  t  following  day.  Like  many  visitors 
since  then,  Mr.  Seward  said,  at  the  end  of  his  second 
day,  that  he  had  met  every  inhabitant,  and  knew  all 
about  them  and  their  affairs.  On  another  day  General 
Davis  gave  a  state  reception  at  the  castle,  and  Mr. 
Seward  being  dissuaded  from  his  original  plan  of 
going  up  to  Mount  St.  Klias,  lest,  after  the  voyage 
across  a  rough  sea,  he  should  find  the  monarch  of  the 
continent  hidden  in  clouds,  made  up  a  party  for  the 
Chilkat  country  instead.  General  Davis  and  his 
family,  two  staff  officers,  and  a  few  citizens,  were 
invited  to  join  them,  and  they  went  in  by  Peril  Straits 
to  Kootznahoo,  and  then  uj)  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Chilkat  River.  The  incidents  of  their  visit  to  Kloh- 
Kutz  in  his  village  have  been  related  in  a  preceding 
chajiter.  Adding  Professor  Davitlson  and  his  assist- 
ants to  their  party,  the  Acfnr  returned  to  Kootz- 
nahoo, and  visited  the  coal  mine  near  Chief  Andres 
village,  and  spent  another  day  on  a  fishing  frolic  in 
Clam  Bay.  On  his  return  to  Sitka  Mr.  Seward  was 
the  guest  of  General  Davis  at  the  castle,  and  on  the 
evening  before  his  departure  he  addressed  the  as- 
sembled citizens  in  the  Lutheran  church.     He  took 


216 


SOUTHEBN  ALASKA. 


ii  '; 


,  I 


t 


I   ' 


.  ( 


leave  with  regret,  and  sailed  away  with  a  miHtary 
salute  on  a  clear  and  radiant  day.  They  touched 
at  the  Takou  glacier  and  Fort  VVrangcll,  went  up 
the  Stikine  River  to  the  mining  camps  on  the  bars 
near  the  boundary  line,  and  last  visited  Fort  Ton- 
gass.  The  adjoining  village  of  Tongass  Indians,  with 
its  many  fine  /o/rm  poles  and  curious  houses,  was 
very  interesting  to  them,  and  the  old  chief  Kb- 
bitts  paid  great  honors  to  the  Tyee  of  all  the  Tyees. 
Mr.  Seward  carried  away  a  large  collection  of  Alaska 
curios  and  souvenirs,  and  his  lavish  purchases  quite 
shook  the  curio  markets  of  those  days.  By  the 
etiquette  of  the  country  the  fur  robes  laid  for  him  to 
sit  on  in  the  chief's  lodges  were  his  forever  after,  and 
the  exchange  of  gift-:,  consequent  upon  such  hospi- 
talities made  his  visits  memorable  to  the  chiefs  by 
Xhi^ potlatc/it's  left  them.  Mr.  Seward  carried  home 
a  dance  cloak  covered  with  Chinese  coin;:,  that  the 
Russians  had  probably  gotten  during  the  days  of  their 
large  trade  with  China,  and  sold  to  the  Indians  for  furs. 
When  the  Chinese  embassy  visited  Mr.  Seward  at 
Auburn,  they  gave  him  the  names  of  the  coins,  and 
some  of  them  dated  back  to  the  twelfth  and  fifth  cen- 
turies, and  to  the  first  years  of  the  Christian  era.  A 
quantity  of  Alaska  cedar  was  taken  east,  and,  in  com- 
bination with  California  laurel,  was  usctl  in  the  panel- 
lings and  furnishings  of  the  Seward  mansion  at 
Auburn. 

A  year  later  I.ady  Franklin  went  to  Sitka  on  the 
troop-ship  Ncivbern,  and  for  three  weeks  was  enter- 
tained at  the  castle,  and  occupied  the  same  corner 
guest-chamber  already  made  historic  by  Mr.  Seward. 
At  that  time,  1S70,  she  was  neeirly  eighty  years  of 


n 


THE  HITKAN  ARCUIPELAGO. 


217 


age,  but  she  was  a  most  active  and  wonderful  woman. 
She  was  accompanied  by  her  niece,  Miss  Cracioft, 
who  was  her  private  secretary,  and  her  object  in 
visiting  Alaska  was  to  trace  rumors  that  she  had 
heard  of  the  finding  of  relics  of  her  husband.  It 
was  a  fruitless  search,  and  the  widow  of  Sir  John 
Franklin  only  lived  for  five  years  after  this  second 
trip  to  the  Pacific  coast  in  quest  of  tidings  of  the  lost 
explorer. 

With  the  exception  of  these  incidents,  Sitka  grew 
duller  and  more  lifeless  by  a  slow-descending  scale, 
with  every  year  that  succeeded  the  transfer  of  the 
territory  to  the  United  States.  The  officers  of  the 
garrison  chafed  under  the  isolation  from  even  the  re- 
mote frontiers  of  Washington  Territory  and  Oregon, 
and  the  soldiers  kept  tumult  rising  in  the  Indian  vil- 
lage. After  ten  years'  occupation  the  military  sailed 
away  one  day  in  1877,  and  as  no  civil  government 
was  established  to  succeed  their  rule,  the  inhabitants 
were  in  despair.  In  a  short  time  the  Indians  began 
to  preaume  upon  their  immunity  from  punishment, 
and  distilling  their  JioocJiinoo  openly  and  without  hin- 
drance, soon  had  ])andemonium  raging  in  the  raiich- 
crie  and  overflowing  into  the  town.  They  burned 
the  deserted  quarters  and  buikUngs  on  the  parade 
ground,  killed  and  mutilated  cattle,  and  the  Russian 
priest  was  powerless  to  prevent  the  defilement  of  his 
church  by  crowds  of  lazy,  indolent  Indians,  who  lay 
on  the  church  steps  and  [gambled  on  anv  and  everv 
day.  Trouble  was  precipitated  by  the  Indians  mur- 
dering a  white  man  in  November,  1878.  The  murder- 
ers were  arrested  by  some  friendly  Indians  and  put  in 
the  guard-house,  and   immediately  the  whole  village 


218 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


i^^.\ 


was  in  arms.  The  white  citizens,  who  had  been 
appealing'  for  the  protection  of  their  own  government 
before  thi:>,  were  virtually  in  a  state  of  siege  and  at 
the  mercy  of  the  enraged  Siwashes.  The  murderers 
were  sent  to  Oregon  for  trial,  but  still  their  people 
raged.  The  three  hundred  white  people  were  out- 
numbered two  and  three  times  by  the  Indians, 
and  all  winter  they  were  in  momentary  dread  of  a 
final  uprising  and  a  massacre.  The  Russians  ar- 
ranged to  gather  at  the  priest's  house  at  any  sign  of 
disturbance,  and  the  collector  of  customs  prepared 
to  send  his  family  below. 

When  all  hope  of  help  from  their  own  government 
was  gone,  the  citizens  made  a  last,  des-^erate  appeal 
for  protection  to  the  British  admiral  at  Victoria. 
Without  waiting  for  diplomatic  fol-de-rol,  Captain 
A'Court,  of  H.  M.  S.  Osprcy,  made  all  haste  to 
Sitka  on  his  humane  errand.  He  reached  there  in 
March,  1879,  and  quiet  was  immediately  restored. 
Three  weeks  later  the  little  revenue  cutter  Oliver 
Wolcott  came  in,  and  anchor  .cl  under  the  protecting 
guns  of  the  big  British  war  ship.  The  Indians 
laughed  in  scorn,  and  the  British  captain  himself  felt 
that  it  would  be  wrong  to  lea^e  the  people  with  such 
small  means  of  defence  at  hand.  Early  in  April  the 
United  States  steamer  Alaska  came,  and  then  the  Os- 
prey  left.  The  captain  of  the  Alaska  declared  his  pres- 
ence unnecessary,  the  Indian  scare  groundless,  and, 
cruising  off  down  the  coast  and  back  to  more  attract- 
ive regions,  left  the  people  again  at  the  mercy  of  the 
Indians.  The  naval  authorities,  after  receiving  the 
report  and  recommendations  of  Captain  A'Court,  had 
the  grace  to  order  the  Alaska  back,  and  it  remained 


1 


THt>  Sir  KAN   AliClUI'ELAGO. 


•219 


'^ 


1 


in  the  harbor  of  Sitka  until   relieved  by  the  sailing 
F>\\ip  James f own,  June  14. 

T\\<t  Jamestown  was  commanded  by  Captain  Lester 
A.  Keardslee,  who  instituted  many  reforms,  cruised 
through  all  parts  of  the  archipelago,  kept  the  Indians 
under  control,  and  finally  made  an  official  report, 
which  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  contributions  to 
the  recent  history  of  Alaska.  He  was  succeeded  in 
command  of  the  Jamestowu  by  Captcun  Glass,  an 
officer  who  displayed  marked  abilities  in  his  manage- 
ment of  the  charge  entrusted  to  him.  Me  exhibited 
a  firmness  that  kept  the  natives  in  check,  and  exer- 
cised justice  and  humanity  in  a  way  to  win  the  ap- 
proval of  those  cunning  readers  of  character.  He 
made  the  Indians  clean  up  their  rancJicric,  straighten 
out  the  straggling  double  line  of  houses  along  shore, 
and  then  he  had  each  house  numbered,  and  its  occu- 
pants counted  and  recorded.  F^y  his  census  of  Sitka, 
taken  Feb.  i,  1881,  there  were  1,234  inhabitants; 
840  of  these  were  in  the  Indian  village,  and  only  394 
souls  composed  the  white  settlement.  He  had  a 
'  round-up  "  of  the  native  children  one  day,  and  each 
.!;t)e  redskin  was  provided  with  a  tin  medal,  with 
w  '  umber  on  it,  and  forthwith  ordered  to  attend  the 
school,  at  ])eril  of  his  parents  being  fined  a  blanket 
for  each  day's  absence.  Aside  f  om  this  benevolent 
and  paternal  work,  the  big  Tvce  of  the  Jamestown 
used  to  terrify  the  natives  by  his  sudden  raids  u)X)n 
the  moonshiners,  who  made  the  fiery  antl  forbidden 
hoochinoo  with  illicit  stills. 

He  supervised  treaties  of  peace  between  the  .Sti- 
kine  and  Kootznahoo  tribes,  between  the  Stikine  and 
Sitka  tribes,  and  kej)t  a  naval  protectorate  over  the 


rlOPPlftJ 


i;}i.fisssBm 


220 


sOUrilKliN  ALASKA. 


■'M 


.,1 


-vi 


iii 


■1! 


infant  mining  camp  at  Juneau,  until  he  was  relieved 
by  Commander  Lull,  with  the  steamer  IVar/iuseU,  in 
1 88 1.  The  fascination  of  the  north  country  brought 
Captain  Glass  back,  in  command  of  the  Wachtisett,  in 
three  months'  time,  and  he  remained  at  the  head  of 
Alaskan  affairs  for  another  year. 

In  October,  1882,  Captain  Merriman  was  detailed 
for  the  Alaska  station,  in  command  of  the  Adams^ 
and  foj-  a  year  he  arl  his  ship  played  an  important 
part  in  local  history,  r  sited  all  the  points  in  the 
archipelago,  fought  the  g.  -..t  naval  battle  of  Kootz- 
nahoo,  and  cruised  off  to  the  settlements  on  the 
Aleutian  Iclands.  Peace  and  order  reigned  in  the 
rancherie  at  Sitka,  the  Indians  and  miners  of  Juneau 
were  chastised  when  they  deserved  it,  and  protected 
in  what  few  rights  they  or  any  one  had  in  the  aban- 
doned territory,  and  crooked  traders  and  distillers  of 
Jioochinoo  had  an  unfortunate  time  of  it. 

The  Adams  was  the  only  visible  sign  of  the  nation's 
power  for  which  the  Indians  had  any  great  respect, 
and  the  nation's  importance  was  adv^anced  tenfold 
when  the  "big  Tyee "  silenced  the  unruly  Kootz- 
nahoos.  He  was  called  upon  to  act  as  umpire, 
referee,  probate  and  appellate  judge,  and  arbiter  in 
all  vexed  questions,  in  addition  to  his  general  duties 
as  protector  and  preserver  of  the  peace.  With  the 
Naval  Register  and  the  United  States  Statutes  for 
code  and  reference,  Captain  Merriman  exercised 
a  general  police  duty  about  the  territory.  He  main- 
tained a  paternal  go\'ernment  and  protectorate  over 
the  Indians,  and  the  judgment  of  Solomon  had  often 
to  be  paralleled  in  deciding  the  issues  of  internecine 
and  domestic  wars.     He  had  often  to  put  asunder 


THE  SITKAI^  AliCUll'ELAGO. 


221 


)ld 


in 
ies 
the 
If  or 
^ed 
tin- 
ker 
[en 
line 
ler 


those  whom  Siwash  ceremonies  or  the  missionaries 
had  joined  together,  to  protect  the  young  men  who 
refused  to  marry  their  great-uncles'  widows,  to  inter- 
fere and  save  the  Hves  of  those  doomed  to  torture  and 
death  for  witchcraft,  to  prevent  the  kiUing  of  slaves 
at  the  great  funerals  and  potlatcJus,  and  to  look  after 
the  widows'  and  orphans'  shares  in  the  blankets  of 
some  great  estate.  For  these  delicate  and  diplomatic 
duties  Captain  Merriman  was  well  fitted.  The  dig- 
nity and  ceremony  that  marked  all  his  intercourse 
with  the  natives  raised  him  in  their  esteem,  and  his 
finn  and  impartial  judgment,  his  kindness  and  con- 
sideration, so  won  them,  that  there  were  wailing 
groups  on  the  wharf  when  he  sailed  away  from 
Sitka,  and  they  still  chant  the  praises  of  this  good 
Tyee,  who  will  always  be  a  figure  in  history  to 
them. 

Captain  J.  B.  Coghlan  succeeded  him  in  command 
of  the  Adams ^  and  the  Indians  having  been  in  the 
main  peaceful,  and  the  mining  camp  all  quiet,  Ca})tain 
Coghlan  gave  a  great  deal  of  time  to  caicful  survey- 
ing of  the  more  frequented  channels  of  the  inside  pas- 
sage. He  marked  off  with  buoys  the  channel  through 
Wrangell  Narrows,  marked  the  more  dangerous  rocks 
and  the  channel  in  Peril  Straits,  corrected  the  errone- 
ous position  of  several  bays  and  coves,  examined  and 
reported  new  anchorages,  and  designated  unknown 
rocks  and  ledges  in  Saginaw  Channel  and  Neva  Strait. 
In  addition  to  this  practical  j)art  of  his  profession. 
Captain  Coghlan  looked  to  the  other  interests  con- 
fided to  him.  He  visited  all  the  Indian  settlements, 
looked  up  their  abandoned  villages,  encouraged  pro- 
spectors and  kept  a  keen  eye  on  all  mineral  discover- 


222 


so ( '  THEHN  ALA 8K A . 


■i! 

■J; 

ii 


ies.  An  especial  want  in  Alaska  is  a  ^ood  coal 
mine,  and  although  there  are  seams  of  it  all  through 
the  islands,  none  of  it  is  valuable  for  steaming  pur- 
poses, and  the  Nanaimo  coal  has  to  be  relied  upon. 
Early  voyagers  discovered  coal  a  half  century  ago, 
and  a.  vein  on  Admiralty  Island  has  been  regularly 
discovered  and  announced  to  the  world  by  every 
skipper  who  has  touched  there  since.  Captain 
Coghlan  was  keenly  alive  to  the  importance  of  finding 
good  coal  in  this  favored  end  of  the  territory,  and  he 
told  the  story  of  the  latest  discovery  in  a  way  to 
make  his  listeners  weep  from  laughter. 

While  out  on  a  survey  trip  one  day,  an  Indian  came 
to  him  mysteriously  and  said  :  "  Heap  coal  up  stream 
here,"  at  the  same  time  stealthily  showing  a  lump  of 
the  genuine  article.  Quietly,  and  so  as  to  attract  as 
little  attention  as  possible,  the  captain,  two  sporting 
friends,  and  the  Indian  started  off,  ostensibly  duck- 
hunting.  After  they  left  the  harbor  of  Sitka  the 
Indian  led  the  way  up  a  narrow  channel,  and  turned 
into  St.  John  the  Baptist's  Bay,  where  careful  and 
extensive  surveys  had  been  conducted  but  a  short 
time  before.  The  officers  began  to  look  amr„3d,  but 
the  Indian  led  on  until  he  beached  his  canoe  and 
triumphantly  showed  them  a  pile  of  anthracite  coal 
stored  under  the  roots  of  the  tree.  The  coal-hunters 
recognized  it  as  some  of  the  anthracite  coal  that  had 
been  sent  from  Philadelphia,  and  this  lot  had  been 
stored  there  for  the  convenience  of  the  steam 
launches,  on  their  trips  bct\veen  the  ship  and  points 
where  they  were  surveying  in  Peril  Straits.  Sec  iring 
the  quiet  of  the  Indian,  the  officers  went  back  to  the 
ship,  and  after  a  few  days  gave  specimens  of  coal  to 


THE  SITKAN  ARCH IPHL AGO. 


22'^ 


ting 
uck- 
the 
rued 
and 
hort 
but 
and 
coal 
nters 
;  had 
been 
team 
oints 
iring 
[o  the 
)alto 


different  experts  on  board.  Tons  of  the  same  article 
lay  in  the  bunkers  under  them,  but  the  experts  went 
seriously  to  work  with  their  clay  pipes  and  careful 
tests.  None  of  them  agreed  about  it.  One  of  them 
declared  it  gooil  coal,  of  good  steaming  quaHty  and 
pure  ash.  Another  one  said  it  vvas  lignite,  and  of  no 
value,  and  never  could  be  used  for  steaming.  Rumors 
of  V  c  discovery  of  a  coal  mine  soon  spread  through 
Sitka,  and  one  man  started  out  to  follow  up  what  he 
supposed  had  been  the  course  of  the  coal-hunters,  with 
the  evil  intent  of  jumping  that  mine.  The  ship  vvas 
just  starting  oii  on  a  cruise,  so  followed  the  jumper, 
and  overtaking  him  in  his  lone  canoe  at  Killisnoo, 
the  coal-hunter  turned  pale  and  nearly  died  with  fright 
lest  he  should  be  punished  with  naval  severity  for  his 
wicked  designs.  The  joke  on  the  coal-hunters,  the 
coal  experts,  and  the  would-be  jumper  of  the  coal 
mine  made  the  ship  ring  when  it  was  told. 

In  August,  1884,  the  Adams  sailed  away  from 
Sitka,  and  its  place  was  taken  by  the  Pinta,  under 
the  command  of  Captain  H.  E.  Nichols,  who  for 
several  years  did  most  valuable  work  in  the  southern 
part  of  the  archipelago  while  in  command  of  the  coast- 
survey  steamer  fiass/er.  His  surveys  were  the  basis 
for  many  of  the  new  charts  of  that  region  that  accom- 
panied the  Alaska  Coast  Pilot  of  1883,  compiled  by 
Prof.  W.  H.  Dall.  and  his  return  with  the  Piuta  allows 
him  to  continue  his  surveys. 

The  Piuta  is  one  of  fifteen  tugs  or  despatch  boats 
built  during  the  war  for  use  at  the  different  navy 
yards.  It  did  service  for  many  years  at  the  Brooklyn 
yard,  but  became  notorious  about  two  years  ago 
while  undergoing  repairs  at  the  Norfolk  yard.     An 


i^^l^X^^^S^'iSSK-.asi.'^ 


224 


SOUTIlKliN  A LASKA. 


unconscionable  sum  was  spent  in  repairing; ;  a  local 
election  was  helped  on,  or  rather  off,  by  this  means, 
and  the  board  of  officers  called  to  survey  and  report 
upon  the  Pinta  when  the  work  was  completed  un- 
hesitatingly condemned  it,  and  declared  it  unsea- 
worthy.  A  second  survey  was  called  in  this  awkward 
dilemma,  and  on  the  trial  trip  the  much-tinkered 
ship  made  about  four  knots  an  hour.  It  went  up  to 
Boston,  ran  into  the  brig  Tally-IIo  that  lay  at  anchor 
there,  and  more  of  its  officers  were  brought  up  before 
a  court  of  inquiry.  A  daring  officer  was  at  last  found 
willing  to  peril  his  life  in  taking  the  Pinta  around 
the  Horn,  and  to  attempt  this  hazardous  exploit  the 
armament  was  dispensed  with  until  it  should  reach 
the  Mare  Island  navy  yard  in  California.  It  started 
the  latter  part  of  November,  and  reached  San  Fran- 
cisco at  the  end  of  May,  where  more  repairs  were 
made,  its  guns  mounted,  ai^d  it  then  cleared  for  its 
new  station.  Its  detail  comprises  seven  officers  and 
forty  men,  and  a  detachment  of  thirty  marines  quar- 
tered at  Sitka  for  shore  duty. 

These  naval  officers  connected  with  Alaska  affairs 
have  received  great  commendation  for  the  course 
pursued  by  them  in  the  Territory,  and  the  history  of 
the  naval  protectorate  is  in  bright  contrast  to  the 
less  creditable  operations  of  military  rule.  As  the 
character  of  the  country  has  become  known,  the  use- 
lessness  of  a  lar.d  force  has  been  appreciated,  and 
it  is  most  probable  that  a  man-of-war  will  always  be 
stationed  in  this  growing  section  of  the  territory. 
Several  naval  officers,  enjoying  and  appreciating  the 
beautiful  country,  hav^  made  special  requests  to  be 
returned  to  the  Alaska  station,  and  are  enthusiastic 


THE  SITKAN   AliClUPKLAiW. 


225 


be 


i 


over  the  region  that  knows  neitiicr  newspapers  nor 
high  hats.  They  have  many  compensations  for  tlie 
larger  social  life  they  are  deprived  of,  and  are  envied 
by  all  the  tourists  who  meet  them.  For  the  sports- 
men there  are  endless  chances  tor  shooting  every- 
thing from  humming-birds  to  ducks,  eagles,  deer,  and 
bear.  The  anglers  tell  fish  stories  that  turn  the 
scales  of  all  the  tales  that  were  ever  told,  and  the 
lovers  of  nature  feast  on  scenes  that  ordinary  travel- 
lers cannot  reach,  and  but  dimly  cheam  of  in  this 
hurried  touch-and-go  .^f  an  Alaskan  cruise.  In 
the  curio  line  they  have  the  whole  Territory  where- 
from  to  choose,  and  the  stone,  the  copper,  and  the 
modern  age  yield  up  their  choicest  bits  for  their 
collections.  A  practical  man  has  told  me  that  there 
is  the  i)lace  where  the  officers  can  save  their  money, 
wear  out  their  old  clothes,  and  learn  patience  and 
other  Christian  virtues  by  grace  of  the  slovv  monthly 
mail.  Some  few  amuse  themselves  with  a  study  of 
the  country  and  its  people ;  and  the  origin,  tribal 
relations,  family  distinctions,  and  mythology  of  the 
Indians  open  a  boundless  field  to  an  inquiring  mind. 
They  come  across  many  odd  characters  and  strange 
incidents  among  the  queer,  mixed  po))ulation,  and 
gather  up  most  astonishing  legends.  One  frivolous 
government  officer,  stationed  for  a  long  time  in  tlie 
Territory,  once  electrified  some  Alaska  enthusiasts 
in  a  far-away  city  by  putting  out  his  elbows,  and 
drawling  with  Cockney  accent :  *'  Ya-as  !  Alaska  is 
all  very  well  for  climate,  and  scenery,  and  Indians, 
and  that  sort  of  thing,  but  a  man  loses  his  grip  on 
society,  you  know,  if  he  stays  there  long  ! " 

It  took  seventeen  years  to  date  fn>m  the  signing 


^1 


22f) 


SOUTHERN   A  L  A  SKA. 


'S       I 


;('    lit 


of  the  treaty  until  the  Congress  of  the  United  States 
grudgingly  granted  a  skeleton  form  of  government 
to  this  one  Territory  that  has  proved  ittjlf  a  paying 
investment  from  the  start.  Every  year  the  IVesident 
called  the:  attenti  »n  of  Congress  to  the  matter,  and 
once  the  commander  of  a  Russian  man-of-war  on  the 
Pacific  coast  announced  his  intention  of  going  up  to 
Sitka  to  examine  into  the  defenceless  antl  deplorable 
condition  of  the  Russian  residents,  to  whom  the 
United  States  had  not  given  the  protection  and  civil 
rights  guaranteed  in  the  treaty.  He  never  carried  out 
his  intentions,  however,  and  the  neglected  citizens 
had  to  wait. 

After  innumerable  petitions  and  the  presentation 
in  Congress  of  some  thirty  bills  to  grant  a  civil  gov- 
ernment to  Alaska,  the  inhabitants  were  on  the  point 
of  having  the  Russian  residents  of  the  Territory  unite 
in  a  |)etition  to  the  Czar,  asking  him  to  secure  for 
them  the  protection  and  the  rights  guaranteed  in 
the  treaty  of  1869.  The  Russian  government  would 
(h)ubtless  have  enjoyed  memorializing  the  United 
States  in  such  a  cause,  after  the  way  the  republic 
has  taken  foreign  governments  to  task  for  the  perse- 
cutions of  Jev's,  peasants,  and  subjects  within  Eu- 
ropean borders. 

Senator  Harrison's  bill  to  provide  a  civil  govern- 
ment lor  Alaska  was  introduced  on  the  4th  of 
December,  1883,  and,  with  amendments,  passed  the 
Senate  on  the  24th  of  January,  1884.  It  was  ap- 
proved by  the  House  of  Representatives  on  the  13th 
of  May,  and,  receiving  President  Arthur's  signature, 
Alaska  at  last  became  a  Territory,  but  not  a  land  dis- 
trict of  the  United  States,  anomalous  as  that  may 
seem. 


THE  .^ITKAy  AHrilll'KLAQO. 


22: 


Hon.  John  H.  Kinkcad,  ex-Governor  of  Nevada, 
and  who  had  once  resided  at  Sitka  as  j)ost master  anc^ 
post  trader,  was  niatlo  the  first  executive.  The  other 
officers  of  this  first  j^overnnient  were  :  John  G.  Brady, 
Commissioner  at  Sitka;  Henry  States,  Commissioner 
at  Juneau  ;  George  I*.  Ihrie,  Commissioner  at  l'\)rt 
\Vran;j;ell  ;  Chester  Seeber,  Commissioner  at  Ouna- 
laska  ;  Ward  MacAlhster,  jr.,  L'nited  States  District 
Judge;  E.  VV.  Haskell,  United  States  District  Attor- 
ney; M.  C.  liillyer.  United  States  Marshal  for  the 
District  of  Alaska  ;  and  Andrew  T.  Lewis,  Clerk  of 
Court.  These  officers  reached  theii"  stations  in  Sep- 
tember, 1884,  and  the  rule  of  civil  law  followed  the 
long  Lterregnum  of  military,  man-of-war,  and  revenue 
government  in  the  country  that  was  not  a  Territory, 
but  only  a  customs  district,  and  an  Indian  reservation 
without  an  agent. 

The  most  sanguine  do  not  expect  to  see  Alaska 
enter  the  sisterhood  of  States  during  this  century, 
but  they  claim  with  reason  that  southeastern  Alaska 
will  develoj)  so  rapidly  that  it  will  bec(/(ne  necessary 
to  make  it  a  separate  Territory  with  full  and  complete 
form  of  govetnment,  and  skeleton  rule  be  confined  to 
the  dreary  and  inhospitable  regions  of  the  Yukon 
mainland. 

The  citizens  who  have  struggled  against  such  tre- 
mendous odds  for  so  many  years  were  rather  bitter 
in  their  comments  upon  the  taidy  and  ungracious 
action  of  Congress  in  giving  them  only  a  skeleton 
government  ;  and  the  Russians  and  Creoles  are  more 
loyal  to  the  Czar  at  heart,  after  experiencing  these 
seventeen  years  in  a  free  country.  To  a  lady  who 
tried  to  buv  some  illusion  or  tulle  in  a  store  at  Sitka, 


228 


SOUTH FAiS   ALASKA. 


the  trader  blurted  out,  "No,  ma'am,  there's  no  illu- 
sion in  Alaska.  It 's  all  reality  here,  and  pretty  hard 
at  that,  the  way  the  government  treats  lis." 

The  dim  ideas  that  the  outside  world  had  of  the 
condition  of  Alaska  was  evinced  by  the  stories  Major 
Morris  used  to  tell  of  dozens  of  letters  that  were 
addressed  to  "The  United  States  Consul  at  Sitka." 
Governors  of  States  and  more  favored  Territories 
regularly  sent  their  Thanks<;iving  i'roclamations  to 
"The  Governor  of  Alaska  Territory,"  long  before 
the  neglected  country  had  any  such  an  official  as  a 
governor,  or  any  right  to  such  a  courteous  appellation 
as  "Territory." 


I 


THE  SITKAy  AlittllPKLAGO. 


229 


c 

>r 

c 

» • 

to 

re 

a 

on 


CHAITI'R    XVI. 


EDUCATION    IN    ALASKA. 


ALTHOUGH  tlic  pride  of  this  most  advanced 
and  enlightened  nation  of  the  earth  is  its  pub- 
lic school  system,  the  United  States  has  done  noth- 
ing for  education  in  Alaska.  According  to  Petroff's 
historical  record,  from  which  the  following  rcsum^  is 
made,  the  Russian  school  system  began  in  1874, 
when  Gregory  Shelikoff,  a  founder  and  director  of 
the  fur  company,  established  a  small  school  at  Ko- 
diak.  He  taught  only  the  rudiments  to  the  native 
Aleuts,  and  his  wife  instructed  the  women  in  sewing 
and  household  arts.  Through  Shelikoff's  efforts  the 
empress,  Catherine  H.,  by  special  ukase  of  June  30, 
1793,  instructed  the  mctropolite  Gabriel  to  send  mis- 
sionaries to  her  American  possessions.  In  1794  the 
archimandrite,  Ivassof,  seven  clergymen,  and  two  lay- 
men reached  Kodiak,  Germand,  a  member  of  this 
party,  established  a  school  on  Spruce  Island,  and  for 
forty  years  gave  religious  instruction  and  agricultural 
and  industrial  teachings  to  the  natives. 

In  1820  a  school  was  established  at  Sitka,  and 
instruction  given  in  the  Russian  language  and  re- 
ligion, the  fundamental  branches,  navigation,  and  the 
trades ;  the  object  in  all  these  schools  maintained  by 


,  I 


230 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


r   I    ;l! 


.Ml 

'•i 


?        l! 


■  "i    ,  If 


>''    < 


the  government  and  the  fur  company  being  to  raise 
up  competent  navigators,  clerks,  and  traders  for  the 
company's  ranks. 

In  1824  Ivan  V  niaminoff  landed  at  Ounalaska, 
and  be;;an  his  mission  work  amonij  the  Aleuts,  He 
translated  the  Scriptures  for  them,  and  cor.ipiled  a 
vocabulary  of  their  language,  and  in  1838  he  went 
back  to  Irkutsk  and  vvas  made  bishop  of  che  inde- 
pendent diocese  of  Russian  Amerita.  Returning  to 
Alaska,  he  established  himself  at  SiiKa,  founded  the 
Cathedral  church,  and  undertook  the  conversion  of 
the  Koloschians,  or  Thlinkets.  Me  studied  their  lan- 
guage, translated  books  of  the  Testament,  hymns, 
and  a  catechism,  and  wrote  several  works  upon  the 
Aleuts  and  Thlinkets,  which  are  still  the  authority 
upon  rdl  that  relates  to  their  peculiar  rites,  supersti- 
tions, beliefs,  and  customs. 

In  the  year  1840  Captain  Etolin,  a  Creole,  educated 
in  the  colonial  school  2t  Sitka,  became  governor  and 
chief  director  of  the  fur  company,  and,  during  his  ad- 
ministration of  affairs,  educational  matters  received 
their  full  share  of  attention.  A  preparatory  school 
was  founded  by  Etolin,  who  adopted  the  wisest  mea- 
sures for  its  success.  Religious  teachings  were  given 
in  all  the  schools,  and  arithmetic,  astronomy,  and  riav- 
igation  were  considered  important  branches.  Etolin 
himself  was  a  fine  navigato**,  and,  while  in  command 
of  the  company's  ships,  he  made  a  survey  of  the 
coast,  and  a  map  which  is  still  considered  authority. 
His  wife  establishc  I  a  school  for  Creole  girls,  educat- 
ing them  in  the  common  branches  and  household  du- 
ties, and  furnishing  them  with  dowrie:?  Vvhen  they 
married  the   company's   officers   or  employees.      In 


1 


THE  SITKAN  AliCUIPELAOO. 


231 


use 
the 

ska, 
He 
ed  a 
\v«'nt 
inde- 
v^  to 
:1  the 
on  of 
ir  lan- 
ymns, 
)n  the 
;hority 
pcrsti- 

ucated 

or  and 

his  ad- 

'ceived 

school 

it  mea- 
given 

lid  nav- 
EtoUn 

Inimand 
of   the  ■ 

I'chority. 

educat- 

liold  du- 

n  they 

s,      Irt 


. 


F841  Veniaminoff  founded  •.  theological  seminary  at 
Sitka,  and  it  was  maintained  until  the  transfer  of  the 
territory  and  the  removal  of  the  bishop's  see  to  Kam- 
schatka.  In  i860  the  school  system  was  rcorgiinized 
by  a  commission,  the  scope  and  efficiency  ot  the  in- 
stitution increased,  and  thorouijjh  training  in  the  sci- 
ences and  higher  branches  afforded. 

In  1867  the  territory  passed  into  the  possession  of 
the  United  States,  the  Russian  support  was  with- 
drawn from  the  schools,  and  educational  affairs  have 
been  at  a  standstill  ever  since.  No  rights  were  re- 
served for  the  Indians  in  the  treaty  of  1867,  so  that 
th  ire  is  no  real  '•  Indian  Question  "  involved.  The 
Treasury  regulations  forbidding  the  imjjortation  or 
sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  makes  the  wl-.ole  Territory 
an  Indian  reservation  in  one  sense  ;  but  there  have 
never  been  any  treaties  with  the  tri1)es  ;  there  are  no 
Indian  agents  within  the  boundaries  ;  and,  uncontami- 
nated  by  the  system  of  government  rations  and  an- 
nuity goods,  the  parties  have  been  left  free,  with  but 
one  exception,  to  work  out  their  own  civilization. 

In  leasing  the  Seal  Islands  to  the  Alaska  Commer- 
cial Company,  the  government  bound  the  company 
"to  maintain  a  sc':ool  on  each  island,  in  accordance 
with  said  rules  and  re;;"ulations.  and  s  .".table  for  the 
education  of  the  natives  of  said  islai  is,  for  a  period 
of  not  less  than  eight  months  in  each  year."  Gov- 
ernment agents  have  seen  that  the  company  kept  its 
promises  for  "  the  comfoi  t,  maintenance,  education, 
and  protection  of  the  natives  of  said  islands,"  and 
having  provided  carefully  for  these  essentials  on 
those  few  square  miles  ol  land,  the  general  gov- 
ernment omitted  to  do  ajiything  for  the  rest  of  the 


232 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


great  country  and  its  33,246  native  inhabitants,  who 
are  certainly  as  much  entitled  to  educational  aid  as 
the  inhabitants  of  the  nearer  Territories  and  the 
Southern  States.  The  Alaska  Commercial  Company 
has  maintained  schools  on  St.  Paul's  and  St.  George's 
islands  as  agreed,  and,  becoming  interested  in  the 
rapid  progress  made  by  one  very  'aright  and  clever 
young  Aleut  at  St.  Paul's,  the  company  sent  him  to 
Massachusetts  to  complete  his  studies.  They  paid 
all  his  expenses  for  five  years,  and  he  left  the  Massa- 
chusetts State  Normal  School  with  credit,  and  is  now 
in  charge  of  the  schools  at  the  Seal  Islands,  an  intel- 
ligent and  highly  esteemed  young  man,  in  whom  the 
company  takes  a  natural  pride. 

According  to  the  census  report  of  1880,  the  native 
population  of  Alaska  numbers  33,246.  Of  this  num- 
ber 7,225  are  Thlinkets  and  Haidas,  inhabiting  the 
southeastern  part  of  the  Territory,  and  Pctroff  gives 
the  followins:  enumeration  of  v.he  tribes  :  — 


1   ! 


Tribes. 

Chilkat 988 

Hooniah 908 

Kootznahoo 666 

Kake 568 

Auk 640 

T^ku 269 

Stikine       317 

Prince  of  Wales  Id.  (West  Coast)    ....  587 

Tongass 273 

Sitka 721 

Yakutat 500 

Haida 788 

Total 7,225 


THE  SITKAN  ARCHIPELAGO. 


233 


$8 


While  the  military  garrison  was  at  Sitka,  the  wives 
of  the  officers  taught  classes  of  the  natives  every 
Sunday,  and  when  General  O.  O.  Howard's  atten- 
tion was  directed  to  the  matter,  during  a  trip  through 
the  country,  he  reported  the  condition  of  affairs  to 
the  mission  boards.  The  Presbyterian  Board  was  the 
first  to  enter  the  field,  Mrs.  Mcl^'arland  esta])lishing 
the  school  at  Fort  Wrangell  in  1877.  In  i<S7<S  a 
school  was  started  at  Sitka  ;  in  1880  one  was  estab- 
lished at  Chilkoot  Inlet,  and  after  that,  one  among 
the  Hooniahs  of  Cross  Sound,  and  at  Mowkan  and 
Shakan,  among  the  Haidas.  A  school  for  Russian 
and  Creole  children  was  maintained  at  Sitka  in  1879, 
under  the  protection  of  Captain  Glass,  U.vS.N.,  whose 
efforts  in  the  cause  i :  Indian  education  have  already 
been  recorded. 

The  Indians  are  quick  to  learn  and  an.xious  t()  be 
taught,  and,  appreciating  the  praC'cal  advantages  of 
an  education,  they  unceasingly  beg  tor  teachers  and 
schools.  The  only  tirawback  to  their  u))uard  pro- 
gress is  their  want  of  all  moral  sense  or  in.-tincts. 
The  missionary  teachers  sent  out  by  the  Presbyte- 
rian Board  have  been  well  received  by  the  Indians, 
but,  on  account  of  a  few  unfortunate  instances,  aie 
not  popular  with  the  white  residents.  The  native 
chiefs  have  often  given  uj)  the  council-houses  ani' 
their  own  lodges  to  them  for  school-rooms,  and  taken 
the  instructors  under  their  special  protection. 

Recognition  was  at  last  given  to  the  rights  and  the 
wants  of  these  people  ir.  1884,  and  in  section  13  of 
the  "Act  providing  a  civil  government  for  Alaska," 
an  appropriation  of  $25,000  was  made  for  the  educa- 
tion of  all  children  of  school  age,  without  reference  to 


^ 


,  ..v><t.^vUU^»i^«^ 


234 


SOUTH Klty  ALASKA. 


)    \, 


race.  The  public  schools  contemplated  in  this  act 
are  yet  to  be  established,  as  the  civil  officers  have 
first  to  inspect,  and  make  their  reports  and  sugges- 
tions as  to  the  wisest  dis])osal  of  the  fund. 

At  the  same  session  of  the  forty-eightli  Congress, 
the  Indian  ai)propriation  bill  made  tins  provision: 
"For  the  support  and  education  of  Indian  children  of 
both  sexes  at  inckistrial  schools  in  Alaska,  $15,000." 
The  Presbyterian  Board,of  Missions,  through  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Kendall,  made  application  for  a  portion  of  this 
fund  in  1884,  and  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Af- 
fairs, in  his  letter  recommending  that  it  should  be 
granted,  said  :  — 

"  In  the  total  neglect  of  the  government  (since 
Alaska  was  purchased)  to  provide  for  the  educational 
needs  of  Alaska  Indians,  thoy  have  been  indebted 
for  such  schools  as  they  have  had  solely  to  religious 
societies,  and  for  most  of  these  schools  they  are  in- 
debted to  the  society  which  Dr.  Kendall  represents. 
For  the  establishment  and  support  of  its  schools  that 
society,  last  year,  expanded  over  $20,000,  and  also 
expended  nearly  $5,000  for  mission  work.  In  the  en- 
largement of  their  educational  work  in  Alaska,  they 
have  therefore  the  first  claim  to  assistance  from  the 
appropriation  recently  made  by  government  for  the 
support  of  schools  in  Alaska.  Moreover,  they  have 
now  on  the  ground  officers  and  employees  who  can 
carry  on  the  work." 

A  contract  was  therefore  made  with  the  mission 
authorities  at  Sitka  for  the  education  and  care  of  one 
hundred  pupils,  at  an  expense  to  the  government  of 
$120  per  capita  per  annum,  the  expenditure  to  be 
irade  in  quarterly  payments  from  the  appropriation 


I 


I 


THE  SiTKAy   AUrUlPKLAdO. 


•l'6'o 


Since 
ional 
pbxecl 

ious 

c  in- 
ents. 

that 

also 
le  en- 

they 
im  the 

r  the 

have 

o  can 

As^ion 
pf  one 
lent  of 
to  be 
-iation 


i 
1 


named  above.  It  was  estimated  that  for  the  first 
year  the  whole  expenditure  would  not  exceed  1^9,000 
or  $10,000.  The  contracts  are  temporary,  and  can 
be  annulled  at  two  months'  notice  should  a  different 
policy  prevail  at  "headquarters ;  and  the  original  inten- 
tion of  establishing  a  government  industrial  school 
after  the  plan  of  the  successful  institution  at  Carlisle 
Barraci<s,  Pa.,  will  probably  not  be  carried  out  for 
some  time. 

The  Roman  Catholics  built  a  chapel  at  Fort  Wran- 
gell  some  years  ago,  but  it  has  been  closed  for  a  long- 
time, and  there  are  no  missions  of  that  church  now 
maintained  in  southeastern  Alaska  at  least.  It  would 
seem  as  though  this  were  a  field  particularly  adapted 
to  the  efforts  of  the  Jesuits,  who  have  always  been  so 
successful  among  the  native  tribes  of  the  ^?acific 
coast. 

Two  Moravian  missionaries  from  Hethlchcm,  I'a., 
the  Rev.  Adolphus  Hartman  and  the  Rev.  William 
Weinland,  were  taken  up  to  the  Yukon  region  by  the 
U.  S.  S.  Corwin  in  the  spring  of  1884,  and  will  devote 
themselves  to  mission  work  among  the  Indians  of 
the  interior. 


i^ 


236 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA, 


CHAPTER    XVII. 


PERIL    STRAITS    AND    KOOTZNAHOO. 


WHEN  the  steamer  gets  ready  to  leave  Sitka, 
there  is  always  regret  that  the  few  days  in  that 
port  could  not  have  been  weeks.  There  are  always 
regrets,  too,  at  not  seeing  Mount  St.  Elias,  when  the 
passengers  realize  that  the  ship  has  begun  the  return 
voyage.  Mr.  Seward  was  most  desirous  of  seeing 
Mount  St.  Elias  from  the  sea,  but  was  deterred  from 
carrying  out  his  plan  by  the  stories  of  the  rough 
water  to  be  crossed,  and  the  certainty  of  fogs  and 
clouds  obscuring  his  view  when  he  reached  the  bay 
at  the  base  of  the  great  mountain.  There  are  sel- 
dom any  passengers  or  freight  billed  for  Mount  St. 
Elias,  and  the  mail  contract  does  not  require  the 
steamer  to  run  up  that  three  hundred  miles  to  north- 
westward of  Sitka  and  call  at  the  mountain  each 
month.  The  U.  S.  S.  Adams  carried  some  prospec- 
tors up  to  Yakutat  Bay  in  1883,  and  its  officers  took 
that  opportunity  of  visiting  the  great  glacier  that 
fronts  for  seventy  miles  on  the  coast  at  the  foot  of 
the  giant  peak  of  North  America.  One  of  the  officers 
made  a  series  of  admirable  water-color  sketches,  but 
no  angles  were  taken  to  determine  the  exact  height 
of  the  mountain,  and  the  elevation  of  the  untrodden 
summit  is  not  yet  determined  with  precision. 


V 


THE  SITKAN  ARVHIPELAao. 


237 


sel- 
St. 
the 
Irth- 
ach 
i^ec- 
ook 
hat 
(tof 
ers 
but 
ght 
den 


-! 


In  June,  1884,  the  /t/a/io  went  up  lu  the  mouth 
of  Copper  River  to  land  Lieutenant  Abercrombie, 
U.  S.  A.,  and  his  exploring  party,  and  the  pilot's  story 
of  the  radiantly  clear  sky,  and  the  view  of  Mount  St. 
Klias,  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  away,  added  poig- 
nancy to  the  regrets  of  the  July  passengers.  From 
a  height  of  17,500  feet,  the  mountain  has  now  risen 
to  19,500  feet,  according  to  the  latest  "Coast  Pilot," 
and  somewhere  it  has  been  given  an  elevation  of 
23,000  feet  above  the  sea.  Fame  and  glory  await  the 
mountain-climber  who  reaches  its  top,  and  every 
American  who  rides  up  the  Righi,  or  has  a  guide  pull 
him  up  other  Alpine  summits,  should  blush  that  a 
grander  mountain  in  his  own  country,  the  highest 
peak  of  the  continent,  too,  has  never  yet  been  accu- 
rately measured,  or  explored,  or  ascended. 

When,  as  the  log  says,  "the  ship  lets  go  from 
Sitka  wharf,"  there  are  two  routes  to  choose  in  start- 
ing southward.  One  leads  out  through  the  beautiful 
Sitka  Sound,  and  past  Mount  Edgecumbe,  to  the 
open  sea,  and  then  the  course  i'  down  the  shore  of 
Baranoff  Island  and  around  Cape  Ommaney  to  the 
insitle  waters.  Fhe  mountain  outlines  of  the  Haranoff 
shore  are  particularly  fine  from  the  ocean,  b  '  a  lands- 
man finds  more  beauty  in  the  peaks  and  ranges  as 
seen  from  the  quiet  waters  of  Chatham  Strait  on  the 
other  side  of  the  island.  Cape  Ommaney.  in  rough 
weather,  is  more  dreaded  by  mariners  than  the  Co- 
lumbia  River  bar,  and  wits  and  punsters  take  liberties 
with  its  name  when  they  round  Cape  Ommaney  in  a 
head  wind  and  chop  sea.  The  Pacific  raises  some 
mighty  surges  off  that  point,  and  there  are  small 
islands  and  hidden  rocks  on  all  sides  of  it.    Vancouver 


,.-....  ^^' 'its 


238 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


had  to  anchor  for  several  days  in  a  little  bight  before 
he  could  venture  around  the  cape,  and  in  later  times 
it  has  been  a  place  of  peril  and  anxiety  to  the  navi- 
gators of  the  coast. 

The  other  route  from  Sitka  leads  around  the  north 
end  of  J^aranoff  Island,  and  through  Peril  Straits 
across  ♦^j  Chatham  Strait.  Peril  Straits  is  a  narrow 
gorge  or  channel  between  the  two  mountainous 
islands  of  Chicagoff  and  Baranoff,  and  is  strewn 
through  all  of  its  tortuous  way  with  rocks  and  ledges 
over  which  the  rushing  titles  pour  in  eddies  and 
rapids.  Several  wrecks  have  occurred  in  this  danger- 
ous passage,  and  in  May,  1883,  the  freight  steamer 
Eureka  struck  a  rock,  and  was  beached  near  shore  in 
time  to  save  it  from  complete  destruction.  All  lives 
were  saved,  and  the  crew  and  salvage  corps  had  a 
camp  near  the  wreck  for  three  weeks,  before  the 
ship  was  raised  and  taken  to  San  Fx'ancisco  for 
repairs. 

It  was  aptly  named  Peril,  or  Pogibshi,  Strait,  by  the 
Russians,  though  Petroff  says  that  it  was  called  that 
on  account  of  the  death  of  one  hundred  of  Baranoff's 
Aleut  hunters,  who  were  killed  by  eating  poisonous 
mussels  there,  rather  than  on  account  of  its  reefs  and 
furious  tides.  It  takes  a  daring  and  skilful  navigator 
to  carry  a  ship  through  that  dangerous  reach,  and  it 
is  something  fine  to  watch  Captain  Carroll,  when  he 
puts  extra  men  at  the  wheel  and  sends  his  big  steamer 
plunging  and  flying  through  the  rapids.  The  yard- 
arms  almost  touch  the  trees  on  the  precipitous  shores, 
and  the  bow  heads  to  all  the  points  of  the  compass  in 
turn,  as  "  the  salt,  storm-fighting  old  captain  "  stands 
on  the  bridge,  with  his  hands  run  deep  in  his  great-coat 


'Si- 


rni-:  sriKAy  Aiu  lui'KLAao. 


23l> 


oat 


pockets,  and  drops  an  occasional  "Stab'bord  a  bit!" 
"  Hard  a  stab'bord  !  "  or  "  Port  your  helm  !  "  down  the 
trap-door  to  the  men  at  the  wheel.  Aside  from  its 
evil  fame,  it  is  a  most  picturesque  and  beautiful  chan- 
nel, the  waters  a  clear,  deep  gjreen,  and  the  shores 
clothed  with  dense  forests  of  darker  green. 

Captain  Coghlan  made  a  survey  of  Peril  Straits  be- 
fore leaving  Alaska,  and  marketl  off  the  channel  with 
buoys.  He  found  so  many  rocks  and  reefs  that  had 
been  unsuspected,  that  the  mariners  said  that  they 
would  never  dare  to  venture  through  Peril  Straits 
again,  after  learning  how  rock-crowded  and  dangerous 
it  was. 

Down  Chatham  Strait,  green  and  snow-covered 
mountains  rise  on  either  side,  and  on  the  shores  of 
Admiralty  Island  marble  blutfs  show  like  patches  of 
snow  on  the  long  shore  line  of  eternal  green.  The 
old  Indian  village  of  Kootznahoo,  the  "  Bear  Fort"  of 
the  natives,  lies  in  a  cove  on  the  Admiralty  shore, 
and,  from  first  to  last,  the  Kootznahoo  tribe  have 
proved  an  unruly  set.  They  made  hostile  demon- 
strations to  Vancouver's  men  when  they  explored 
the  strait,  and  in  1869  the  authorities  had  to  deal 
severely  with  them,  destroying  a  village  and  carrying 
the  chief  away  as  hostage,  or  prisoner,  on  the  V.  S.  S. 
Sagiimw.  Tn  October,  1S82,  the  shdling  of  t  ,is 
Kootznahoo  village  by  Captain  Merriman,  \J.  S,  N., 
made  a  great  stir,  and  editors  si.x  thousand  miles 
away  heaped  vituperation  and  invective  upon  the 
head  of  that  officer,  without  waiting  to  know  of  any- 
thing but  the  bare  fact  of  the  shelling.  The  docility 
of  the  Indians  since  then,  and  the  expressed  approval 
of  the  Tyee's  action  by  the' chiefs  of  the  tribe,  prove 


240 


SOUTllEllN  ALASKA. 


how  efficacious  his  course  was  at  the  battle  of  Kootz- 
nahoo.  In  Alaska,  where  the  history  of  that  bom- 
bardment is  still  fresh,  and  the  survivors  are  walking 
about  in  paint  and  nose  rings,  the  whole  thing  wears 
a  different  aspect,  and  fragments  that  one  remembers 
of  those  blazing  editorials  appear  now  as  most  laugh- 
able. Every  scribe  brought  in  a  ringing  sentence 
about  the  "eternal  ice  and  snows  of  an  arctic  winter;" 
but  they  don't  have  arctic  winters  in  this  part  of 
Alaska,  as  a  study  of  the  Japan  Current  and  the 
isothermal  lines  will  show,  and  while  the  battle  raged 
the  thermometer  stood  higher  than  it  did  in  New 
York.  Other  errors  were  bound  to  creep  in  where 
the  fires  of  enthusiasm  were  kindled  with  so  little  in- 
formation, and  to  the  officers  and  people  of  Sitka  the 
newspapers  were  a  source  of  unending  entertainment 
when  the  bombardment  of  Kootznahoo  began  to  reach 
their  columns. 

As  related  on  the  spot,  that  Kootznahoo  story  of  the 
torpedo  and  the  whale  is  Homeric  in  its  simplicity. 
Some  Indians  went  out  in  a  canoe  with  the  white  men 
emi)loyed  by  the  Northwest  Trading  Company  at  Kil- 
lisnoo.  While  paddling  towards  a  whale,  one  of  the 
bombs  attached  to  a  harpoon  exploded  and  killed  an 
Indian.  If  it  had  been  a  common  Indian,  nothing 
would  ever  have  been  heard  of  the  incident,  but  when 
the  natives  saw  their  great  medicine  man  laid  low,  they 
raised  an  uproar.  Going  back  to  first  causes,  they 
demanded  two  hundred  blankets  from  the  trading 
company  as  compensation  for  their  loss.  The  com- 
pany naturally  ignored  this  tax  levied  by  the  coroner's 
jury,  and  straightway  there  were  signs  of  war. 

The  Indians'  demand  for  blood  or  ransom  was  made 


TIIK  SITKAN  AliCJlIPELAGO. 


241 


i 


stronger  by  their  capturing  one  of  the  wliite  men  and 
holding  him  as  hostage,  but  when  they  found  that  he 
was  one-eyed  they  tried  to  send  him  back  for  ex- 
change. They  claimed  that  he  was  cultus  (worth- 
less), and  demanded  a  whole  and  sound  man  for  their 
dead  shaman.  They  made  ready  to  murder  all  the 
white  men  at  the  adjoining  station,  intending,  how- 
ever, to  spare  the  agent's  wife  and  children,  as  they 
afterwards  confessed.  As  the  signs  of  the  coming 
trouble  were  more  apparent,  the  little  steamer  Fa- 
vorite was  sent  to  Sitka  with  the  agent's  family, 
and  an  appeal  made  for  help  to  the  Adains.  Captain 
Merriman  returned  in  the  Favorite,  accompanied  by 
the  revenue  cutter  Corwiu. 

A  great  iva-iva  was  held  with  the  ringleaders  and 
marauders,  and  to  their  bold  demand  for  the  two  hun- 
dred blankets.  Captain  Merriman  responded  vvith  a 
counter-demand,  that  the  Indians  should  bring  him  four 
hundred  blankets,  and  forever  after  keep  the  peace, 
or  he  would  shell  their  village.  Mistaking  his  word  for 
that  of  a  common  Indian  agent,  the  red  men  went 
their  riotous  way,  and  at  dusk  of  a  November  after- 
noon the  Corivin  anchored  outside  the  reef  and  sent 
the  shot  hurtling  through  the  village.  The  Indians 
gathered  up  their  blankets  and  their  stores  of  winter 
provisions,  and  took  to  the  woods,  but  the  bombard- 
ment was  not  so  severe,  but  that  a  few  rascally 
Kootzr.ahoos  stayed  in  the  village  and  plundered  the 
abandoned  houses.  The  tribute  of  blankets  was  paid, 
the  Kootznahoos  humbled  themselves  before  the  big 
Tyee,  or  their  "good  father,"  and  a  more  docile,  pen- 
itent, and  industrious  community  does  not  exist  than 
those  same  obstreperous  Indians. 


m 


242 


so UriIKU  .V  A  L  .1  fiKA. 


The  liquor  that  the  Hudson  Hay  Company  and  the 
Russian  tradL-rs  furnished  to  the  Indians  was  very 
weak  and  very  expensive,  and  the  Kuotznahoos  rest 
some  of  their  claims  to  distinction  on  the  fact  that 
the  native  drink,  or  hoochinoo,  was  first  distilled  hy 
their  people.  A  deserter  from  a  vvhalinf;-ship  tau^dit 
them  the  secret,  and  from  molasses  or  sugar,  with 
flour,  potatoes,  and  yeast,  they  distil  the  vilest  and 
most  powerful  spirit.  An  old  oil  can  and  a  musket 
harrel,  or  a  section  of  the  long,  hollow  pipe  of  the 
common  seaweed  {ncrciocistuni)  furnish  the  appara- 
tus, and  the  lioochinoo,  quickly  distilled,  can  be  used 
at  once.  After  any  quantity  of  it  has  been  made, 
its  presence  is  soon  declared,  and  the  Indians  are 
frenzied  by  it.  Ilooc/iii/oo  is  the  great  enemy  of 
peace  and  order,  and  the  customs  officers  can  much 
easier  detect  a  white  man  smuggling  whiskey  than 
catch  the  Indians  in  the  distilling  act.  It  is  appa- 
rent enough  when  i"hey  have  imbibed  the  rank  and 
fiery  spirit,  but  it  is  impossible  to  watch  all  the 
illicit  stills  that  they  set  up  in  their  houses,  or  hide  in 
lonely  coves  and  places  in  the  woods.  The  man-of- 
war  is  always  on  the  lookout  for  indications  of  JioocJii- 
iioo,  and  at  the  first  signs  a  raid  is  made  on  a  village, 
the  houses  and  the  woods  searched,  and  the  stills  and 
supplies  destroyed.  With  the  cunning  of  a  savage 
race  they  have  wonderful  ways  of  hiding  it  in  under- 
ground and  up-tree  warehouses,  and  many  exciting 
stories  are  told  by  the  naval  officers  of  the  great  hoo- 
chiuoo  raids  they  have  taken  part  in. 

Liimmc  or  rum,  these  children  of  nature  some- 
times call  the  forbidden  fluid,  as,  like  their  Chinese 
cousins,  the  Thlinkets  are  unable  to  pronounce  the 


TUE  SITKAN  AHCUIVKL.UiO, 


243 


igo 


i 


letter  r,  and  give  the  /-sound  as  its  ecjuivalent  in 
every  case.  There  arc  many  points  of  resemblance 
between  the  Kootznahoos  and  the  Orientals  ;  and 
in  writing  of  the  origin  of  these  Thlinket  tribes  of 
the  archii)elago,  Captain  Jieardslee,  in  his  official 
report,  says  :  — 

"All  of  the  tribes  mentioned  except  the  Kootzna- 
hoos  seem  to  have  sprung  from  a  common  origin  ;  they 
speak  the  same  language  and  luive  similar  customs 
and  superstitions,  and  from  these  the  Kootznahoos 
differ  so  slightly  that  a  stranger  cannot  detect  the 
difference.  Their  legend  is  that  originally  all  lived 
in  the  Chilkat  'ountry  ;  that  there  came  great  floods 
of  ice  and  water,  and  the  country  grew  too  poor  to 
sui)port  them,  and  that  many  emigrated  south  ;  that 
the  Auks  are  outcasts  from  the  lloonah  tribes,  and 
the  Kakes  from  the  Sitkas,  and  botli  tribes  deserve 
to  be  still  so  considered  ;  that  the  Kootznahoos  came 
from  over  the  sea.  and  the  Maidas,  who  live  on  Van- 
couver's Island,  from  the  south.  I  have  imbibed  an 
impression,  which,  however,  I  could  not  obtain  much 
evidence  to  support,  that  all  of  the  tribes  except  the 
Haidas  are  Oriental,  —  in  every  respect  they  resem- 
ble the  Ainos  of  Japan  far  more  than  they  do  our 
North  American  Indians,  —  and  that  the  Kootznahoos 
are  of  Chinese  origin  ;  while  the  Haidas,  who  are 
superior  to  all  of  the  others  in.  intelligence  and  skill 
in  various  handicrafts,  are  the  descendants  of  the 
boat-loads  whom  Cortez  drove  out  of  Mexico,  and 
who  vanished  to  the  north." 

All  this  part  of  Admiralty  Island  is  a  coal  field, 
and  veins  and  outcroppings  of  lignite  have  been 
found  on  every  side  of  it,  and  along  the  inlets  and 


J 


244 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


1;    ; . 


if  .i 

f:        I 


ii  ^  i.  : 


creeks  leading  to  the  interior.  A  good  coal  mine 
would  be  worth  more  than  a  gold  mine,  in  Alaslca, 
and  though  seams  have  been  discovered  with  regu- 
larity since  1832,  none  of  the  explorers  seem  to  have 
found  just  the  thing  yet.  In  1868  Lieutenant-Com- 
mander Mitchell  explored  Kootznahoo  Inlet,  leading 
into  the  heart  of  Adi  .iralty  Island,  and  at  the  head 
of  the  perilous  channel  opened  a  coal  seam.  In  the 
following  year,  Mr.  Seward's  party  went  up  to  the 
Mitchell  mine,  and  they  were  enthusiastic  over  its 
promises.  The  coal  burned  beautifully  in  the  open 
air,  but  when  the  real  tests  wtre  put  to  it,  and  i*;  was 
tried  in  the  boiler-room  of  the  ship,  it  was  foun'l  to 
contain  so  much  crude  resin  that  it  was  destruc- 
tion to  boiler  iron.  Geologically,  the  country  is  too 
young  to  have  even  any  ver)'  good  lignite  beds,  but 
the  archipelago  is  now  swarming  with  coal  pror>pect- 
ors  and  coal  experts,  and  there  is  such  a  general 
craze  for  coal  that  it  may  yet  be  forthcoming.  At 
present  the  Nanaimo  coal  is  depended  upon  entirely 
for  steaming  purposes,  and  the  mail-steamer  has  to 
carry'  its  own  supply  ^ar  the  whole  round  trip,  and 
take  as  freight  the  coal  needed  for  the  government 
ships  at  Sitka. 

After  Captain  Hooper's  mine  of  true  coal  at  Cape 
Lisburn,  en  the  Arctic  coast,  the  most  promising 
indication*;-,  are  at  Cook's  Inlet  and  annnd  the  VCenai 
peninsula.  Although  irrelevant  in  this  connection,  it 
perhaps  naturally  follow's  in  this  lignite  vein  to  men 
tion  a  coal  mine  accidentallv  discovered  bv  an  En- 
glish  yachtsman.  Sir  Thomas  Hesketh,  while  cruising 
about  Kenai.  He  treed  an  eagle  on  a  hunting  trip, 
and.  other  means  failing  to  dislodge  it,  the  sportsman 


THE  SITKAN  ARCHIPELAGO. 


245 


set  fire  to  the  tree.  The  roots  ran  down  into  a  coal 
seam,  thac,  taking  fire,  was  burning  two  years  later 
v.hen  the  last  ship  touched  there.  Another  escapade 
of  the  ^'achting  party  v/as  to  set  a  dead  monkey 
adrift  in  a  box,  and  when  it  washed  ashore  near 
Kodiak,  the  Indians,  who  had  had  a  tradition  that 
the  evil  spirit  would  come  to  earth  in  the  shape  of 
a  little  black  man,  fled  that  part  of  the  island  in  ter- 
ror and  never  went  back. 


"WT^ 


240 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 


KILLISNOO    AND    THE    LAM)    OF    KAKES. 


I    I 


1'     ' 


:''      i'     '  |) 


I  I  i  >  I 


AROUND  the  point  from  Kootznahoo,  a  sharp 
turn  leads  through  a  veritable  needle's  eye  of 
u  i)assage  to  Koteosok  Harbor,  made  by  the  natural 
breakwater  of  a  small  island  lying  close  to  the  Admir- 
alty shore.  This  island  was  named  by  Ca]itain  Meade 
as  Kenasnow,  or  "near  the  fort."  as  the  Kootznahoos 
designated  it  to  him.  It  is  a  picturesque,  fir-crovvned 
little  islantl,  and  its  dark,  slaty  cliffs  are  seamed  with 
veins  of  pure  white  marble.  Its  ragged  shores  hoUl 
hundreds  of  aquariums  at  low  tide,  and  in  the  way  of 
marine  curios  there  are,  besides  the  skeletons  of 
whales,  myriads  of  star  fish  and  jelly  fish  and  barna- 
cles strewing  the  beach  ;  the  acres  of  barnacles  giving 
off  a  chorus  of  faint  little  clicking  sounds  as  they 
hastily  shut  their  shells  at  the  sound  of  any  one 
approaching. 

On  this  little  island  of  Kenasnow,  1:he  Northwest 
Trading  Company  has  its  largest  station,  Rillisnoo, 
where  coilfish  are  dried,  herring  and  dogfish  con- 
verted into  oil,  and  the  air  weighted  with  the  most 
horrible  smells  from  the  fish  guano  manufactured 
therj.  The  company  has  extensive  warehouses, 
works,  and  shops  on  Kenasnow,  and  around  the  build- 
ings there  are  gathered  quite  a  village  of  Kootznahoo 


sharp 

eye  of 

atural 

\.dmir- 

Mcadc 

Kihoos 

owned 

;d  with 

s  hold 

way  of 

ons   of 

harna- 

giving 

tis  they 
,ny  one 

irthwest 
inisnt)o, 
Ish  con- 
he  most 
[act  u  red 
chouses, 
ic  build- 
ktznahoo 


THE  SITKAN  ARCHIPELAGO. 


247 


Indians,  who  are  employed  at  the  fishery.  This  sta- 
tion represents  an  investment  of  over  $100,000,  the 
oil  works  alone  having  cost '$70,000,  ai\tl  extravagant 
management  having  doubled  all  the  necessary  ex- 
penses of  the  first  plant.  As  there  was  no  water 
supply  on  the  solid  rock  of  Kenasnow,  a  reservoir 
with  a  storage  capacity  of  90,0(X)  gallons  of  water 
was  constructed  ;  and.,  with  cedar  forests  on  every 
side,  every  bit  of  lumber  used  was  brought  by  freight 
from  below. 

Killisnoo  was  first  established  as  a  whaling  station, 
but  many  causes  decided  the  company  to  abandon 
that  branch  of  fishery.  There  is  a  tradition  that  the 
Indians  once  regarded  their  great  totemic  beast,  the 
whale,  with  such  veneration  that  they  would  never 
kill  it,  nor  eat  of  its  fiesh  and  blubber.  The  Kootz- 
nahoos  have  grown  skeptical  in  many  ways,  and  they 
made  no  objections  to  harpooning  the  whale,  until 
the  bomb  explodetl  in  1882  ;  and  after  the  troubles 
following  upon  that  impious  adventure,  the  company 
decided  that  whaling  was  not  a  profitable  business, 
and  began  to  fish  for  cod  and  smaller  fry. 

The  codfish  are  caught  in  the  deeper  waters  of 
Chatham  Strait  around  the  island,  the  Indians  going 
out  in  the  fleet  of  small  boats  to  fish,  and  turning 
their  catch  into  large  scows,  which  are  towed  in  by 
the  two  steam  launches  that  are  kept  constantly 
busy.  Connoisseurs  pronounce  this  cod  remarkably 
fine,  firm,  and  white,  and  as  neither  hake  nor  hail- 
dock  are  ever  found  there,  the  Killisnoo  codfish  is 
not  open  to  the  same  suspicions  as  rest  on  so  many 
Eastern  fish.  They  average  in  weight  from  three  to 
five  pounds,  and  the  Indians  are  provided  with  boats 


248 


.so  UTHERN  A  LA  SKA . 


^ 


:rr:i 


and  paid  two  cenls  apiece  for  every  codfish  caught.  A 
difficulty  in  the  way  of  drying  in  the  open  air  in  this 
moist  climate  has  been  solved  by  building  a  drying- 
house,  where  the  process  is  accomplished  artificially. 
There  seems  to  be  no  limit  to  the  quantity  of  fish  that 
can  be  caught,  and  during  one  visit  at  Killisnoo  a  scow 
was  towed  in  from  Gardner  Point  loaded  with  eight 
thousand  fine  large  cod,  and  1,576  boxes  of  the  dried 
fish  were  ready  to  be  shii)ped  south. 

From  the  end  of  August  into  January,  the  waters 
of  Chatham  Strait  are  black  with  herring.  The  In- 
dians used  to  catch  them  with  primitive  rakes,  made 
by  driving  nails  through  the  end  of  a  piece  of  board, 
and  with  this  rude  imi)lement  they  could  quickly  fill 
a  canoe  with  herring,  each  nail  catching  two  and 
three  fish.  Seines  have  supplanted  the  aborigine's 
liand-rake,  and  a  thousand  barrels  of  silver  herring 
have  been  taken  at  a  single  haul,  although  the  average 
haul  is  about  half  as  many  barrels,  and  requiring 
eleven  men  to  each  net  then.  Each  barrel  of  fish 
yields  about  three  gallons  of  oil  at  the  oil  works, 
which  are  managed  by  men  who  have  had  charge 
of  menhaden  fisheries  on  the  Atlantic  coast.  As 
the  result  cf  the  first  year's  work,  82.000  gallons  of 
herring  oil  were  shipped  below  in  188,^,  selling  at  the 
rate  of  thirty  cents  per  gallon.  Within  the  year  an 
attempt  was  made  towards  supplying  the  cod-liver  oil 
of  pharmacy,  and  five  cases  of  it  sent  below  for  trial 
received  the  highest  indorsement  from  physicians. 

More  picturesque  and  less  fragrant  than  the  build- 
ings of  the  company  were  the  log  and  bark  houses  of 
the  Indians,  who  have  abandoned  'heir  -old  village 
and  fort  of  Kootznahoo,  and  settled  iround  the  Kil- 


^ 


77//-;   .s777vMJV'   ARCIflPKLAaO. 


240 


erage                  ■ 

iii-in<i;                  1 

f  fish                  i 

,'(>rks,                  ■  ' 

har<2;c                  1 

As                  1 

ns  of                  1 

It  the                  1 

^ar  an 

,'er  oil 

r  trial 

ns. 

buiUl- 

ses  of 

rillage 

e  Kil- 

lisnoo  station.  The  local  ct'lobrity  is  tlio  famou.s  old 
head  chief  of  the  Kootznabioos,  Ivitchnatti  or  Sai;ina\v 
Jake,  who,  for  ilu-  iniciuities  of  his  tribe,  was  carried 
off  as  a  iiostagj  in  llie  nian-of-war  Sdi^i/mii'  in  1869. 
He  was  a  prisoner  for  a  loni;  lime  on  board  that  ship 
at  the  Mare  Island  Na\y  Vard  in  California,  and 
when  he  was  afterward  returned  to  his  people,  he  be- 
came an  apostle  of  jx'ace  and  the  greatest  friend  of 
the  white  man.  Me  is  a  crooked,  bow-legged  old  fel- 
low, and  he  superintended  the  tying  up  of  the  ship  in 
a  most  energetic  wav.  lie  lurched  and  tacked  across 
the  dock,  waving  his  cane  wildly  to  his  underlings, 
and  giving  hoarse,  guttural  words  of  the  fiercest  com- 
mand. He  wore  a  derb\-  hat  with  a  gold  band,  and 
the  uniform  coat  of  a  captain  of  the  navv,  while  two 


ib 


st( 


his  b 


a 


ve  his  name  and 
rank  as  the  Killisnoo  policeman,  and  a  dangerous- 
looking  billy  was  suspended  from  his  shoulder  by  a 
variegated  sash. 

Besides  being  a  hostage  of  war,  Kitchnatti  was 
once  denounced  l)y  a  terrible  shaman,  who  had  an 
incurable  patient  on  hand.  The  chief  was  found 
bound  and  tied  for  torture,  and  barely  rescued  in 
time  by  naval  friends.  He  has  now  no  respect  for 
his  own  medicine-men,  and  proved  it  once  by  telling 
one  of  the  curio  collectors  that  he  knew  where  there 
was  a  shaman's  grave  full  of  beautiful  carvings  and 
trophies.  He  was  bidden  to  get  them,  aad  offered  a 
price  for  his  grave-robbing.  In  a  few  days  Jake  re- 
appeared, looking  sad  and  despoTident.  He  men- 
tioned the  name  of  a  sub-chief,  and,  with  a  tone  of 
severe  disapproval,  said  :  — 

•'  Heap  bad  Indian.  He  rob  medicuie-man's  grave. 
Sell  curios  to  trader.     Bad  man." 


pnm 


^■Vqil 


WiiPiiiii 


250 


SOUTUKHN  ALASKA. 


\   '  I 


1      ! 


'  When  Jake  spied  the  photographers  on  shore,  he 
made  wild  signals,  ran  off  to  his  cabin,  and  reap- 
peared clad  in  fuller  regalin  ;  then,  drawing  an  old 
cutlass,  braced  himself  up  in  a  "present-arms"  atti- 
tude before  the  camera,  and  nodded  for  the  operator 
to  go  on.  He  then  led  them  to  his  neatly  white- 
washed house,  and  showed  them  a  cigar-box  full  of 
letters  of  credentials  and  testimonials  of  character 
given  him  by  naval  officers,  shij)  captains,  traders, 
and  missionaries.  All  of  these  Indians  have  a  great 
fancy  for  these  letters.  They  beg  them  from  every  one 
in  power,  and  carry  them  around  tenderly  wrapped  in 
l^aper,  to  show  them  as  certificates  of  their  worth, 
character,  and  importance.  Some  of  Jake's  letters 
were  profusely  sealed  with  great  splotches  of  red 
wax,  and  there  is  a  story  that  he  for  a  long  time 
innocently  showed  a  testimonial,  which  ran  :  '*  The 
bearer  of  this  paper  is  the  biggest  scoundrel  in 
Alaska.  Believe  nothing  that  he  says,  ami  look  out, 
or  he  will  steal  everything  in  sight."  These  poor 
old  men  of  letters  have  many  funny  jokes  played  on 
them  in  this  way,  and  it  is  really  touching  to  see 
the    innocent   pride  with   which    they  display  these 


msignia. 


Jake  pointed  with  pleasure  to  a  row  of  illuminated 
posters  and  portraits  of  theatrical  celebrities  that 
decorated  one  wall  of  his  cabin,  and  explained  that 
they  were  pictures  of  his  friends.  The  faces  were 
those  of  Nat  Goodwin,  Gus  Williams,  John  McCul- 
lough,  Thomas  Keane,  and  others,  and  the  high  col- 
ors and  grand  attitudes  much  pleased  the  old  chief. 
In  quite  another  vein  Jake  pointed  to  a  small  box 
tomb  on  the  other  side  of  the  channel,  where  he  had 


I  in 
out, 
[xior 
d  on 
see 
Ihese 


ated 
that 
that 
Iwere 
:Cul- 
col- 
:hief. 
box 
had 


<    1 


■l>¥«#«-"i',;t> 


THK  SITKAN  AHVlIIPKL.'iW. 


2:)3 


: 


buried  his  little  daughter  a  few  days  before.  A  flag- 
pole, with  a  small  United  States  flag  at  half-mast, 
gave  mute  testimony  to  Jake's  ideas  of  patriotism 
and  mourning  etiquette.  His  wife  betrayed  her  state 
of  grief  by  wandering  about  in  a  black  dress,  with  a 
black  umbrella  held  down  closely  over  her  head  all  of 
the  time. 

At  Killisnoo  blackened  faces  were  almost  the  rule, 
and  every  other  native  woman  had  her  face  coated 
with  a  mixture  of  seal  oil  and  soot.  A  group  of 
these  blackamoors  made  a  picture,  as  they  sat  inside 
a  cabin  door  weaving  their  pretty  baskets  of  the  fine 
inside  bark  and  roots  of  the  cedar.  One  younger 
woman  wore  a  silver  pin  sticking  out  through  her 
under  lip,  another  had  a  large  wooden  labrette  in 
her  lip  ;  and  when  the  photographer  tried  to  take  the 
group,  their  neighbors  ran  up  and  joined  in  the 
tableau. 

At  Killisnoo,  once,  the  anglers  baited  their  lines 
and  hung  them  overlxjard,  as  inducements  to  the  cod- 
fish. The  lunch-gong  summoned  them  below,  but 
they  tied  their  lines  and  trusted  to  some  fish  swal- 
lowing the  hooks  while  they  were  gone.  When  the 
first  angler  came  up  and  touched  his  line,  his  face 
glowed,  and  he  began  pulling  in  the  weighty  prize. 
When  the  line  left  the  water  a  bottle  was  dangling 
on  the  end  of  it,  tied  with  a  sailor's  knot,  and  hook 
and  bait  intact.  The  second  angler  drew  up  a  dried 
codfish,  and  then,  when  they  looked  around  for  the 
captain  of  the  ship,  he  was  nowhere  to  be  found. 

There  are  a  few  Kake  Indians  among  the  fisher- 
men and  workmen  at  Killisnoo,  and  their  old  home 
or  proper  domain  is  on  Kouiu  Island,  further  down 


m 


254 


SOUTllEHN  ALASKA. 


if 


'■?'     i 


!       ; 


Chatham  Straits.  The  Kakes  are  outcasts  and  rone- 
p;ade.s  among  the  tribes,  and,  from  early  days,  there 
has  been  reason  for  the  bad  name  given  them.  They 
were  hostile,  treacherous,  and  revengeful,  and  were 
dealt  with  warily  by  the  old  traders.  In  1857  a  war 
party  paddled  a  thousand  miles  down  to  Puget  Sound, 
and  at  Whidby  Island  murdered  Mr.  Ebey,  a  former 
collector  of  customs  at  Port  Townsend,  in  retaliation 
for  an  indignity  jnit  upon  their  men  in  the  preceding 
year.  They  carried  his  heau  back  with  them,  and 
great  war  dances  followed  the  return  of  the  avenging 
Kakes. 

At  the  north  end  of  Kouiu  Island  are  the  ruins  of 
the  three  villages  destroyed  during  the  '  ike  war,  in 
1869.  The  origin  and  incidents  of  this  war  are  thus 
sketched  in  a  private  letter  by  Captain  R.  W.  Meade, 
U.  S.  N.,  who  commanded  the  U.  S.  S.  SagijtazVj  at 
that  time  in  Alaskan  waters  :  — 

"  The  war  was  due  originally  to  the  killing  of  a 
Kake  Indian  at  Sitka  by  the  sentry  on  guard  at  the 
lower  end  of  the  town.  There  had  been  some  trou- 
ble with  the  Indians  outside  the  stockade,  and  Gen- 
eral Jeff  C.  Davis,  who  commanded  the  department, 
with  headquarters  at  Sitka,  had  given  orders  to  pre- 
vent all  Indians  from  leaving  Sitka  during  the  night 
—  I  think  it  was  New  Year's  night.  He  had  asked 
me  to  co-operate  with  him,  and  my  patrol-boats  sent 
several  canoes  back  to  the  Indian  village.  About 
daylight  a  canoe  was  discovered  leaving  the  village. 
The  soldier  nearest  the  canoe  hailed  and  ordered  the 
canoe  back,  and  as  it  did  not  go  back  after  a  third  or 
fourth  hail,  fired,  killing  a  Kake  Indian.  The  canoe 
still  continued  to  paddle  off,  and,  though  pursued  by 


1 


THK   siTKAN   MiClllVKLAGO. 


255 


I 


i 


the  boats  of  the  Snj^iuaWy  that  had  seen  the  firing, 
escaped.  Subsequently,  in  revenge  for  this,  the  Kakc 
Indians  murdered  two  Sit l<a  traders,  Messrs.  Maugher 
and  Wali<er,  md  General  Davis  determined  to  punish 
them  by  destroying  their  villages.  1  was  asked  to 
co-operate,  and,  althougii  I  think  the  trouble  could 
have  been  avoided  in  the  first  place,  yet,  after  the 
wanton  murder  of  two  innocent  men,  I  felt  it  my 
(Uity  to  give  the  Kake  tribe  —  a  very  ugly  one — a 
lesson.  We  therefore  took  on  board  some  twenty- 
five  soldiers  from  the  garrison  at  Sitka,  and  went  to 
the  Kake  country.  The  Indians  abandoned  their  vil- 
lages on  our  ai)proach,  and  three  villages  were  de- 
stroyed by  fire  and  shell.  A  stockaded  fort  was  also 
destroyed  by  midship/man,  now  Lieutenant  l^ridges, 
of  the  Sa^i^inaw.  The  Indians  were  dismayed,  and 
no  further  trouble,  I  believe,  has  occurred  with  them. 
There  was  no  loss  of  life  on  either  side  —  it  was  a 
bloodless  war." 

The  Kakes  have  never  returned  to  these  villages, 
and  in  diminished  numbers  they  roam  the  archi- 
pelago, creating  trouble  and  disturbances  wherever 
they  draw  up  their  canoes.  Their  visits  are  dreaded 
equally  by  the  natives  and  whites,  and  Captain 
Beardslee  peremptorily  ordered  them  out  of  Sitka 
when  several  war  canoes,  filled  with  a  visiting  party, 
came  abreast  of  the  ranclicric,  shouting  and  singing 
their  peculiar  songs.  Their  unpleasaui.  reputation 
has,  doubtless,  kept  settlers  away  from  Kouiu  Island, 
and  there  is  not  yet  as  much  as  a  salmon  cannery  or 
packing  house  on  its  shores.  The  island  is  over  sixty 
miles  long,  with  an  irregular,  indented  shore,  and 
wherever  the  surveyors  have  followed  its  lines  they 


2r)«; 


SOUTH I'JIiN   .\l..lSlxA. 


have  seen  forests  of  yellow  cedar.  This  timber  will, 
in  time,  make  Kouiu  and  the  adjoinin};  island  of 
Kuprianoff  the  most  valuable  land  sections  in  this 
|)art  of  the  Territory.  The  yellow  cedar  is  srnd  to 
be  the  only  good  ship  timber  on  the  Tacific  coast, 
and  is  the  only  wood  that  can  resist  the  teredo, 
which  eats  up  the  pine  piles  under  wharves  in  two 
years  from  the  time  they  are  driven.  The  trees  are 
found  five  and  seven  feet  in  diameter,  and  attain  the 
heifTjht  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet,  and  the  fine, 
closely  grained,  hard,  yellow  wood  was  once  exported 
to  China  in  large  quantities  by  the  Russians.  The 
Chinese  valued  it  for  its  fine,  hard  texture,  and  they 
carved  it  into  chests  and  small  articles,  and  exported 
it  as  cam])hor  wood,  lis  odor  is  liy  some  said  to 
resemble  sandal  wood,  and,  by  others,  garlic,  but  it 
takes  a  beautiful  satiny  polish,  and  will  be  as  valuable 
as  a  cabinet  wood  as  for  shi[)  timber.  Some  of  it 
that  has  been  sent  to  I'ortland  has  been  sold  at 
seventy-five  tlollars  a  thousand  feet,  and  iMr.  Seward 
prized  very  highly  the  fine  cedar  that  he  carried 
home  with  him.  As  ihere  has  always  been  complaint 
of  the  quality  of  the  Oregon  timber,  and  vessels  built 
of  its  pine  could  not  be  insured  as  A  i  but  for  three 
years,  it  may  seem  strange  that  no  attempts  have 
been  made  to  utilize  the  vast  forests  of  cedar  scat- 
tered through  the  archipelago.  Seven  years  ago  a 
bill  was  introduced  in  Congress  asking  that  one  hun- 
dred thousand  acres  of  timber  land  on  Kouiu  Island 
should  be  sold  to  a  company,  that  guaranteed  to  estab- 
lish a  shipyard  and  build  a  vessel  of  twelve  hundred 
tons  burthen  within  two  years.  The  same  inscrut- 
able reasons  that  for  a  long  time  prevented  anything 


THE  SITKAN  AH(JlUrKLAG(h 


m 


being  done  for  the  development  of  Alaska  prevented 
the  bill   from    becomin<r  a   law.      Kven   the  present 
act  establishing  a  form  of  civil  government  does  nm 
make  the  Territory  a  land  district,  and  nothin^^  could 
seem  more  i)ervcrse  than  this  action.     Timber  lands 
can  neither  be  bou-ht  nor  leased,  and  as  settlers  can 
in  no  way  accjuire  an  acre,  there  are  few  saw  mills  in 
the  Territory,  and  their  owners  are  ^aiilty  of  stealing 
government  timher,  and  liable  to  prosecution  if  the 
new  officials  press  things  to  the  finest  point.     Want 
of  lumber  has  been  a  serious  hindrance  and  obstacle 
to  settlers,  and   the    miners   at  Juneau   had    to   pay 
freight  on,  and  await  the  monthly  consignments  of 
Oregon  pine  that  were  shipped  to  a  country  crowded' 
with  better  timber. 


f  ' 


258 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


,\  • 


CriArTER   XIX. 


THE    PRINCE    OF    WALES    ISLAND. 


-<      / 


i:    ( 


I  IKK  Knuiu  and  Kuprianoff  islands,  the  IVincc 
— ^  of  Wales  Island  is  another  home  of  the  yellow 
or  Alaska  cedar.  It  was  named  by  Vancouver^  and 
when  the  Co;  st  Survey  changed  his  name  of  the 
George  III.  Archipelaf;'o  to  the  y\lexander  Archi- 
pelago, this  largest  island  of  the  gronj)  retained  its 
former  designation  It  is  from  one  hundred  and  fifty 
to  two  hundred  miles  long,  and  from  twenty  to  sixty 
miles  wide,  ^at  the  surveys  have  never  been  com- 
plete enough  to  determine  whether  it  is  all  one  island 
01'  a  group  of  islands  Great  arms  of  the  sea  reach 
into  the  heart  of  the  is. and,  and  dense  forests  of  cedar 
cover  it>  hil^s  and  dales.  The  salmon  are  founti  in 
the  grea.''est  n  imbers  on  every  sitle  of  it.  and  the  pio- 
neer and  most  successful  cannery  and  packing  houses 
aie  on  its  shores.  On  account  of  its  timber  and  its 
saln:on,  it  was  once  i>roposed  to  declare  the  island  a 
government  reservation  of  ship  timber  for  the  use  of 
the  navy  yards  on  the  Pacific  coast,  and  to  lease  the 
valuable  fisheries.  The  very  mention  of  Alaska  has 
been  provocative  of  roars  of  laughter  in  the  houses  of 
Congress,  and  the  ugh  the  reservatioii  would  have 
been  larger  than   the  State  of  New  Jersey,  and  its 


Its 

id  a 

kc  of 

the 

has 

'S  of 

have 

1  its 


I 


THE  SITKAN  ARCUIVELAGO. 


25V> 


value  incalculable,  the  wits  took  tlicir  turn  at  the 
^leasureand  nothing  was  done.  A  citizen  of  Alaska, 
who  has  chafed  under  the  neglect  and  indignities  put 
upon  this  Territory,  made  scathing  comments  upon 
the  debates  of  both  Mouse  and  Senate,  brought  about 
by  these  ceckir  reservation  bills  and  the  bill  for  a 
Territorial  government.      His  final  shot  was  this  :  — 

"If  those  Senators  and  ''^ongiessmen  don't  know 
any  more  about  the  tariff,  and  the  other  things  that 
they  help  to  discuss,  than  they  do  about  Alaska,  the 
Lord  help  the  rest  of  the  United  States.  Their  igno- 
rance of  the  commonest  facts  of  geography  would  dis- 
grace any  little  Siwash  at  the  I'^ort  Wrangell  School. 
What  have  they  ))aid  for  all  these  special  government 
reports  for,  if  they  don't  ever  read  them  when  they 
get  ready  to  sj)eak  on  a  foreign  subject,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  what  can  be  found  in  the  encyclo{);edias  and 
geographies } " 

These  Alaskans  are  keenly  critical  of  all  that  is 
written  about  their  Territory,  and  they  scan  newspaper 
accounts  with  the  sharpest  eyes  for  an  inaccuracy  or 
a  discrepancy.  The  statesmen  who  have  assailed  the 
Territory  in  speeches  and  debates  in  Congress  are 
condemned  with  a  certain  thorough  less  and  sweep; 
and  to  introduce  a  co|)y  of  /7/<  CtfNi^/rssiofia/  Rtron/, 
containing  such  efforts,  causes  even  worse  explosions 
than  the  one  quoted.  It  was  one  of  these  revengeful 
jokers  who  laid  the  scheme  for  having  an  eminent 
senator  introduce  a  bill  to  build  a  wagon  road  from 
Kort  Wrangell  to  a  point  on  the  Canadian  Pacific 
Railroad  on  the  eastern  sloj^e  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains. An  a})propriation  of  $ioo,cxx)  was  asked  for, 
v.iu\  every  married  citizen  was  to  receive  six  hundred 


2^jO 


80  urn  EH  V  A  L  A  H  KA. 


and  forty  acres  of  agricultural  or  grazing  land  'n  the 
Territory.  As  the  contemplated  highway  would  lead 
for  a  thousand  miles  across  British  C<4uinbia,  through 
the  densest  wood^  and  over  tli*-  roughest  coiMirtry, 
and  from  tlie  island  tow  n  of  F<>ri  Wrangell  only  ten 
lea'';ues  of  the  route  would  be  within  the  Alaska 
boundaries,  some  of  the  joke  can  hv  discovered. 

( )n  the  west  shore  of  I'rince  of  Wales  Island  there 
is  a  large  salmon  cannery  and  saw-mill  at  Klawak, 
belonfring  to  Messrs.  Sisson,  Crocker,  &  Co.,  of  San 
Francisco.  It  was  established  in  l87<S,  and  the  shi])- 
ments  of  salmon  are  made  direct  by  their  own 
schooners  to  San  Francisco,  or  by  their  steam  launch, 
which  makes  frequent  trip.s  to  Kaigahriee  ar^d  VorX 
Wrangell,  the  nearest  post  offices  and  landing*  of  th*- 
mail  .steamer.  In  1883  the  Klawak  cannery  shipfx^d 
10,000  cases  of  .salmon  to  San  I'^rancisco,  and  in  1884, 
8,000  cases  were  sent  below.  The  Klawak  settle- 
ment is  off  the  regular  line  of  the  steamer,  and  rarely 
visited  by  it,  now  that  the  cannery  i.s  well  established 
and  furnished  with  its  own  boats  ;  but  it  is  described 
as  one  of  the  many  beautiful  places  in  the  archipelago 
where  the  silver  salmon  run  in  greatest  numbers. 

b'or  salmon  fisheries  and  salmon  canneries  there 
exists  a  perfect  craze  all  along  the  Pacific  coast,  and 
from  the  Columbia  River  to  Chilkat  such  establish- 
ments are  projected  for  every  possible  jilace.  At 
the  most  northern  point  of  our  cruise  we  ])icked  up  a 
piratical-looking  man,  in  flannel  shirt  and  tucked-uj) 
trousers,  who  had  been  sent  to  Alaska  "'to  prospect 
for  salmon,"  by  the  owners  of  one  of  the  large  can- 
neries at  Astoria,  Oregon.  This  piscatorial  pros- 
pector had  for  years  been  a   pilot   on  the  Columbia 


TIIK    <TTKAS    AU(:iin*KI.A<i(>. 


2(il 


Jl'JO 


sh- 
At 
pa 

(>ect 
:an- 
ros- 
ibia 


i 


Ri\cr,  and  this  fact,  together  with  his  buccaneer  air, 
made  him  quite  a  character  o\\  clcci<.  'llie  pros- 
pector was  the  kindest  and  best-naluicd  man  that 
ever  lived,  with  a  bushy  head  and  beard,  and  a  mild, 
tvvinlvling  blue  eye.  Months  of  strolling  in  the  mud 
and  moisture  of  Alaska  soil  had  taught  him  to  roll 
iiis  trou.-3ers  well  up  at  the  heel,  and  he  continued 
that  cautious  habit  after  he  came  on  board,  often 
pacing  the  dry  and  spotless  decks  of  the  [daho  with 
his  checked  trousers  rolled  halfway  to  his  k-ices,  and 
the  gay  facings  of  retl  leather  strccd^ing  his  nether 
limbs  like  the  insignia  of  the  knightly  order  of  the 
garter.  Confidentially  he  said  to  the  mate  one  day, 
"Did  you  notice  the  terrible  cold  1  had  when  I  came 
up  with  you?     Weil,  it  was  all  because  my  wife  ma^ie 

me  wear  that white  shirt."      The  sincerity  and 

earnestness  with  which  he  said  this  sent  his  accidental 
listeners  off  convulsed,  and  liu-  piospector's  latest 
remarks  passed  current  in  the  absence  of  daily  papers 
and  humorous  columns. 

Not  all  of  the  "salmon  prospectors  "  are  as  worthy 
and  reliable  as  this  shipmate,  and  in  their  solitary 
quests  they  have  time  to  gather  and  manufacture 
some  fish  stories  that  leave  all  the  i'^razer  River  yarns 
far  1  ehind.  At  every  place  that  we  touched  we  were 
shown  or  told  about  "the  biggest  liar  in  Alaska." 
These  great  {)revaricators  and  end)roiderers  of  the 
truth  were  not  always  in  the  salmon  l)usiness,  and 
quite  as  often  were  searching  for  coal  or  the  [jrecious 
metals.  One  pretty  bay  was  lamous  as  the  residence 
of  such  a  man,  who  had  beguiled  capitalists  below 
into  letting  him  sink  S  10,000  in  a  fishery.  When  the 
sliij)  anc''ored  off  his  lodge  in  the  wilderness  early 


■■fUMMP^panpqp^ 


2Q2 


so UTHERN   A  LA  SKA . 


'    \ 


i    1 


'  -; 


f'      M 


one  rainy  morning,  a  hirsute  man  on  shore  ran  down 
the  beach,  and,  making  a  trumpet  of  his  hands,  con- 
versed with  the  officers  on  deck.  He  had  sent  word 
previously  that  he  had  eighty  barrels  of  salmon  ready 
for  shipment,  but  when  the  inquisitive  men  f:om  the 
steamer  went  off  to  his  packing  house,  not  more  ilian 
four  hundri'd  salmon  lay  pickling  in  the  vats,  with 
not  a  barrel  ready.  I'his  Mulberry  SelU'is  follov,e(l 
them  back  to  the  small  boats,  talking  volubly  all  the 
way,  and  the  last  that  we  saw,  as  the  anchor  chains 
rattled  in  and  the  ship  mowd  off,  was  the  menda- 
cious fisherman  sttUiding  in  the  rain,  and  talking 
through  his  hand  trnmpet,  "Captain!  can't  you 
wait  a  while,'"  was  the  farewell  plea  that  vve  heard 
wafting  over  the  water,  and  all  of  that  afternoon  in 
the  cabin,  while  the  rain  pelted  overhead,  we  were 
entertained  with  anecdotes  of  this  same  celebrity  and 
other  champion  prevaricators  of  the  Territory. 

When  we  left  Sitka  on  the  Anco/i,  and  went  out 
over  the  rolling  main  and  around  Cape  Ommaney, 
the  tirst  stopi^ing-place!  was  at  the  north  end  of  the 
Prince  of  Wales  Island,  where  a  narrow  winding 
channel,  not  more  than  twice  the  width  of  the  ship's 
beam,  leads  into  the  beautiful  basin  of  Red  liay. 

This  intricate  little  place  was  known  to  the  Rus- 
sian traders  long  ago,  and  called  Krasnaia  Bay,  btit 
it  was  only  in  1884  that  a  packing-house  was  built 
and  the  shining  silver  salmon  decoyed  into  seines. 
It  is  a  beautiful  little  place,  hidden  away  on  the 
edge  of  the  great  island,  and  its  air  must  be  rest- 
fid  to  the  nerves.  The  beating  of  the  ship's  {^ad- 
dle-wheels  could   be   heard    for   miles   in   such  quiet 


land-locked   waters,  ami   the  steamer' 


w 


histl 


e  gave 


THE   snu.iX    Mi('im'Kl.A(,iO. 


205 


;hc 


'^' 


lilt 
es. 
the 
st- 
ad- 
liet 


)i 


warning  of  its  presence  lung  before  it  rounded 
the  last  bends  of  the  bay.  Nevertheless,  there  were 
no  signs  of  life  or  excitement  about  the  fishery,  and 
the  two  men  in  sight  and  at  work  on  the  beach  did 
not  even  turn  their  heads  to  look  at  t!ie  large  ocean 
steamer  bearing  down  towards  them.  No  freight 
seemed  ready,  neither  boats  nor  canoes  |)ut  out,  and 
the  passengers  longed  to  l)e  listeners  wiien  the  cap- 
tain and  purser  went  ashore  in  the  first  gig  and  held 
parley  with  the  easy-going  tishermen  on  the  beach. 
When  we  followed  in  the  next  l)oats  the  spicy  pirt  of 
the  interview  was  over,  and  we  siciply  found  that 
Red  Bay  was  the  most  awful  smelling  p-lace  in  Alaska, 
the  beach  a  dirty  cjuagmire  covered  with  kelp  and 
heads  and  tails  of  salmon,  and  the  Indians  a  hard  and 
fierce-looking  set,  The  captain  had  only  the  pleasure 
of  the  scenery  and  the  excitement  of  some  skilful 
pilot  practice  for  going  in  thtre,  as  the  lone  lisher- 
men  had  no  salmon  ready  to  shij)  aft'.-r  all  the  re- 
quests for  the  steamer  to  call  on  the  Jidy  trip. 

Once  out  of  the  tortuous  channel  and  a'ong  the 
shore  some  miles,  we  anchored  at  the  mouth  of 
Salmon  Creek,  where  a  lighter  lay  ready  loaded  at 
the  packing-house,  and  three  hundred  and  twenty-five 
barrels  of  salted  salmon  were  towed  out  to  the  ship 
and  put  on  board  ;i.s  the  result  of  thv  fust  catch  of 
the  first  year  of  thi«  new  fishery.  Fhere  was  an 
energetic  proprietor  running  that  establishment,  and 
he  welcomed  the  boat-load  of  visitors  on  shore  and  led 
them  over  a  half-acre  of  shavings  into  the  side  door 
of  the  packing-house,  A  prying  man  of  tlie  party 
spied  a  great  string  of  salmon  trout  on  the  floor  and 
raised  hysterical  shrieks.     "Oh!  that's  nothing,"  .said 


HOUTllKliy   .  1  LA  SKA. 


1  ! 
1  1 


I  ' 


the  proprietor  coolly,  "a  little  mess  that  I  caught  for 
the  captain  of  the  ship.  The  creek  is  full  of  them 
out  here.  This  Injun  will  get  you  some  lines."  A 
veritable  war-whoop  followed  the  announcement,  and 
the  anglers  broke  into  a  war-dance,  circling  at  all 
hands  round,  doing  the  })igeon-wings  and  chains  in 
such  a  frenzied  manner  that  the  astonished  Indian^ 
crept  up  on  the  barrels  and.  sat  gaping  and  trembling 
in  their  blankets  at  the  sight  of  their  uncivilized 
white  brethren. 

The  Indians  brought  the  fish  lines,  with  common 
hooks  and  small  stones  tied  on  for  sinkers,  and  the 
anglers  were  rowed  out  in  an  old  scow  and  anchored 
not  fifty  feet  from  the  front  of  the  packing-house. 
It  was  not  artistic  fishing  with  fancy  flies,  and  anglers 
with  patent  reels  and  nets  would  have  looked  scorn 
at  the  little  groui)  steadily  pulling  in  all  the  hungry 
trout  that  snapped  at  the  bits  of  salmon  or  salmon 
eggs  hung  out  to  them.  An  old  Indian  and  a  small 
boy  came  paddling  around  in  a  leaky  canoe,  and  were 
pressed  into  service  to  cut  bait  for  the  busy  fisher- 
men. As  the  trout  rtoi)ped  into  the  scow  faster  than 
one  a  minute,  wild  shouts  rent  the  air,  and  the 
Siwash  adjutants  joined  in  the  yells  that  woukl  have 
frightened  off  anything  else  in  scales  but  these 
untutored  Alaska  trout.  The  flapping  fish  splashed 
and  spoiled  the  clothes  of  the  fishermen,  but  they 
never  heeded  that,  and  a  tally-keeper  was  installed 
on  the  "^our  bags  and  barrels  at  the  end  of  the  scow. 
The  excitement  was  communicated  to  the  idlers  who 
had  stayed  on  the  ship,  and  soon  a  second  boat  put 
out  for  the  fishing  ground,  full  of  wild-eyed  anglers 
anxious  to  join  in  the  carnival.     The\'  anchored  near 


THE  SITKA2i  AliCIIIFKLAGO. 


2u5 


hoy 
Uccl 
o\v. 
who 
put 
lers 


the  scow,  and  their  efforts  were  received  with  shouts 
of  derisian  as  they  be<^an  pulling  in  devil-fish,  toad- 
hsh,  sculpin,  skate,  and  marine  curios  enough  to  stock 
•  museum,  before  a  single  trout  was  hooked,  i'hc  In- 
dians came  down  and  sat  in  solemn  rows  on  the  logs 
on  shore  to  watch  the  crazy  white  fishermen,  and  the\ 
made  picturesque  groujis  that  were  reijcated  in  the 
glassy  mirror  of  water  before  them.  ( )ne  old  fellow  in 
a  red  blanket  made  a  fine  point  of  color  against  the 
thick  golden-green  wall  of  spruce-trees  on  the  shore, 
and  children  and  dogs  gave  a  characteristic  fringe  to 
all  the  groups.  When  the  last  lighter  put  out  for  the 
ship  the  lines  were  wound  up,  and  the  tally-keeper  on 
on  the  iiour  bags  read  the  reconl  written  on  the  barrel 
tops.  The  two  men,  one  small  boy,  and  the  brave 
creature  in  six-button  gloves  who  baited  and  tended 
her  own  hook,  caught  altogether  one  hundred  and  ten 
trout  in  the  hour  and  a  quarter  at  anchor  in  the  old 
scow.  The  weight  was  sixty  pounds,  and  the  fisher- 
men were  wild  with  glee.  The  one  fair  angler  and 
th'i  tally-keeper  having  mopped  the  slimy  boat  and 
the  pile  of  fish  with  their  dresses,  and  then  seated 
themselves  on  flour  bags,  hatl  full  view  of  the  fishing 
scene  photographed  on  every  breadth  of  their  gowns. 
"What  shall  I  tlo  witli  my  dress.'"  asked  one  of 
them  when  she  readied  the  calm  and  well-dressed 
company  on  deck,  and  a  ciieerful  woman  said  briskly  : 
**  I  guess  you  'd  better  fry  it,  now  that  it  is  dii)ped  in 
batter." 

Sailing  southward  thiough  Clarence  Straits, a  trader 
lo  ig  resident  in  the  country  told  us  of  many  Indian 
superstitions,  among  others  rejjeating  that  of  their 
belief  that   the  aurora  flames  are  the  shadows  of  the 


266 


HOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


\ 


spirits  of  dead  warriors  dancing  in  the  sky,  and  that 
a  great  display  of  northern  lights  portends  a  war  be- 
tween th.,*  tribes. 

The  folders  of  the  Pacific  Coast  Steamship  Com 
pany  head  the  notice  of  the  Alaska  route  with  the 
insjjiring  line  ;  "  Glaciers,  Majestic  Mountains,  Inland 
Seas,  Aurora  I^orealis,  and  Nightless  Days."  All  ot 
this  official  j)romise  had  come  to  pass  according  to 
schecUde,  with  the  exception  of  the  aurora,  and  al- 
though the  sky  never  grew  dark,  even  at  midnight, 
we  clamored  for  one  display  of  northern  lights. 
The  captain  told  us  to  wait  and  take  the  trip  in 
December  if  we  wantetl  to  see  the  arches  of  flame 
spanning  the  sky,  and  jets  of  brilliant  color  flashing 
to  the  zenith  like  spray  from  a  f<juntain.  He  further 
wrought  our  fancies  to  the  highest  pitch  by  his 
descriptions  of  the  marvellous  auroras  that  he  had 
seen  on  his  mid-winter  cruises,  and  the  dazzling 
moonlight  effects,  when  each  snow-covered  peak  and 
range  shone  and  glistened  like  polished  silver  iti  the 
flood  of  light,  and  the  still  waters  repeated  the 
enchanted  scene.  Bright  as  the  midnight  sky  was 
with  the  lingering  twilight  of  the  long  day,  we  had  an 
aurora  that  night  as  we  steamed  down  along  the 
shores  of  the  Prince  of  WaL^s'  Island.  The  pilot 
roused  the  enthusiasts  to  see  Uie  promised  display  in 
the  northern  sky,  and  the  arches  and  rays  of  pale 
electric  light  were  distinct  enough  to  maintain  the 
word  of  the  steamship  company.  The  stars  twinkled 
in  the  ghostly  gray  vault  overhead,  and  the  wan, 
white  light  flashed  and  faded  in  fitful  curves,  broad 
rays  and  waving  streamers,  that  rested  like  a  vast 
halo  above  the  brows  of  the  grand  mountains  lying 
in  black  shadows  at  our  left. 


THK  STTKAN   MU'lIll'KLAfiO. 


'2i 


X 


and 
the 
the 
was 
id  an 
the 
pilot 
ay  in 
pale 
the 
nkled 
wan, 
broad 
vast 

iyinib 


The  inexorable  law  of  ship's  duty  only  permits  it 
to  linger  at  a  harbor  for  the  tiir.e  neeessary  to  load 
or  iinloatl  cargo,  or  for  tiic  time  specified  in  the 
mail  contract,  and  in  this  same  hard  practical  vein  it 
makes  little  difference  whether  a  place  is  reached  by 
night  or  day.  It  is  light  enough  these  summer 
nights  to  carry  on  all  outdoor  work,  and  the  rare 
visits  of  the  steamer  are  enough  to  set  all  the 
inhabitants  astir  at  any  hour,  while  the  constant 
excitement  of  the  trip,  and  the  strange  spell  o'"  tiu' 
midnight  'ight,  makes  the  tourist  indifferent  to  his 
establishefl  customs.  Once  on  the  Idaho  we  were  at 
anchor  in  Naha  liay  only  trom  five  to  six  o'clock  in 
the  morning,  but  it  was  barely  two  o'clock  on  a  clear, 
still  morning  when  the  rattling  of  the  Aficon's  anchor 
chains  again  broke  the  silence  of  Naha  15ay.  Al- 
though we  lay  there  for  five  hours,  few  |)assengers 
could  be  roused  to  watch  the  sunrise  clouds,  the 
leaping  salmon,  and  tlie  brilliant  green  and  gold  ot 
the  sun-touched  woods  and  water.  In  the  dew  and 
freshness  of  the  early  morning,  Naha  Hay  was  more 
lovely  than  ever,  and  the  little  black  canoes  seemed 
to  float  in  emerald  air,  so  clearly  green  were  the 
calm  waters  under  them. 

For  another  perfect  summer  afternoon  the  Ancou 
lav  at  the  whart  in  Kasa-an  Bay,  and,  \\\  the  mellow, 
fndian  summer  sunshine,  we  roamed  the  beach,  buy- 
ing the  last  remaining  baskets,  bracelets,  pipes,  and 
sjioons  of  the  Indians,  and  ])uning  hard  at  the 
amateur's  oar  as  we  trailed  across  the  bav  in  small 
boats  to  watch  the  fishermen  cast  and  draw  the  net. 
The  huge  skeleton  wheels  on  which  the  nets  are 
dried   had   raised   many  comments  at  every  fishery. 


L 

IP 


'W^W. 


2(»« 


sf)(  Tin:iiy  Alaska. 


h\\[  we  had  never  been  lucky  cnou;;h  to  catch  the 
iiK'U  rtoiiio  anything;  l)ut  windinj;  the  nets  on  these 
reels  to  dry.  The  fishermen  had  dropped  the  weight- 
ed net  when  we  reached  the  cove  on  the  opj»osite 
shore,  and  the  line  of  hohbini;  wooden  floats  showed 
how  this  fence  in  the  water  was  being  gradually  drawn 
in,  anti  tlie  area  limited  as  it  crept  toward  the  beach. 
The  sun  was  hot  on  the  water,  and  the  far  awa\-  peal 
of  the  lunch  gong,  sounchng  in  the  stillness  of  the 
mountain  bay,  caused  us  to  turn  back  to  the  ship 
before  all  the  shining  salmon  were  drawn  up  anrl 
thrown  into  the  scows.     The  fascination  of  the  water 


INDIAN    PIPE. 

was  too  great  to  resist,  and  in  the  warmer  sun  of  the 
afternoon  we  followed  the  shores  of  Baronovich's 
little  inlet,  rowing  close  in  where  the  menzie  and 
merton  spruce  formed  a  dense  golden-green  wall  and 
threw  clear  shadows  and  reflections  upon  the  water. 
We  dipped  into  each  little  shaded  inlet,  posed  in  the 
boat  for  the  amateur's  camera  to  preserve  the  scene, 
and  floated  slowly  over  the  wonderland  that  lay 
beneath  the  keel.  It  was  with  real  regret  that  we 
saw  the  last  barrel  of  salmon  dropping  into  the  hold, 
and,  steaming  down  the  beautiful  bay  in  full  sunshine. 
had  a  glimpse  of  the  inlet  where  the  village  of  Karta 
and  its  ^oUm  poles  lies,  before  we  turned  into 
Clarence  Strait, 


TIIH   SITKA  \    M!(llll'KL. [(,(>. 


'%m 


CIIAITI'R    XX. 


HOWKAX    OK    KAId AMNKi:, 


I 


TWV^i    in    its    commercial    mission    tlic    steamer 
wandered    amonj^^    the     islands,    touching    at 
infant  settlements  and  tradin;;  posts,  and  anchoiinj; 
before  Indian  villa^^es  with  traditions  and  /otofi  poles 
centuries    old.      KouncHn-    the   southern   end   of   the 
I'rince  of  Wales   Island  to  Dixon   I<:ntrance,  the  fog- 
and  mist  crept  upon  us  as  we  iicared  the  ocean.      It 
was   a   wet   and  gloomy  afternoon   when    the    fda/io 
anchored  in  the  little  American  Hay  on  Dall  Island, 
not    more    than    a    mile    from    Mowkan,    an    ancient 
settlement  of  the  Kaigahnee  Haidas  and  a  place  of 
note  in   the  archipelago.     Howkan   has   more   totem 
poles  than  any  other  village,  and  is  one  of  the  most 
interesting  places  on  the  route;    but    as    Kaigahnee 
Strait    before    the   village   is   thickly  set  with   reefs, 
and  swift  currents  and  strong  winds  sweep  through 
the  narrow  channel,  it  is  dangerous  for  vessels  to  go 
near.     The  fur  traders  used  always  to  anchor  in  the 
little  b  >ys  on  the  opposite  shore,  and  to  one  of  them, 
.American  Bay,  the  Northwest  Trading  Company  was 
cd)oui.  ,0  ;nove  its  stores.     Only  a  small  clearing  had 
been  maoe,  and  two  buildings  put  up,  at  the  time  of 
that  first  visit,  and  it  looked  a  very  dreary  and  forlorn 


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Photographic 

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23  WEST  MAIN  i^SSf  T 

WEBSTER, N.Y.  )4SP!} 

(716)  872-4503 


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270 


SOUTH  Kli\    A  LA  SRA. 


I    I  i 


place,  as  we  picked  our  way  about  in  the  rain,  climb- 
ing over  logs  and  sinking  in  the  wet  moss. 

After  the  cargo  had  been  discharged,  the  captain 
obligingly  took  the  shij)  over  to  the  nearest  safe 
anchorage  off  •the  village,  and  we  had  a  warm 
welcome  on  shore  from  the  five  white  residents.  For 
two  years  the  missionary's  wife  and  sister  had  met 
but  one  white  woman,  until  the  boatload  of  ladies 
went  ashore  from  the  IdaJto^  and  overwhelmed  them 
with  a  superfluity.  We  all  gathered  in  the  trader's 
house  and  store  at  first,  and  these  two  white  residents 
of  Hovvkan  were  none  other  than  the   Russian  Count 

Z and  his  pretty  black-haired  Countess,  a  couple 

interesting  in  themselves  and  their  history,  and  all 
the  more  extraordinary  in  their  being  found  in  this 
remote  end  of  the  world.  The  Count  is  a  man  oi 
fascinating  address  and  appearance,  polished  manners 
and  cultivated  tastes,  and,  being  exiled  for  Nihilistic 
tendencies,  he  chose  Alaska  in  preference  to  Siberia, 
and  made  his  way  across  the  friendly  chain  of  islands 
to  "the  home  of  the  free  and  the  land  of  the  brave." 
He  marrieil  a  charming  Russian  lady  at  Sitka,  and. 
with  the  calm  of  a  philosophic  mind  and  the  patience 
of  a  patriotic  heart,  he  waits  the  time  when  amnesty  or 
anarchy  shall  ])ermit  his  return  to  holy  Russia.  Ad- 
versity and  years  in  the  savage  wilderness  have  not 
robbed  these  people  of  their  ease  and  grace  of  manner, 
and  the  handsome  Count  had  all  the  charm  and  spirit 
that  must  have  distinguished  him  in  the  gay  world  of 
his  native  capital.  The  little  Countess  was  unfeign- 
edly  glad  to  .see  a  few  follow  creatures,  and  in  the 
dusk  of  that  dreary,  wet  uiglu  welcomed  us  to  her 
simple  home,  and  showed  us  her  treasures,  from  the 


THE  slTKAA    ARCHirKLAdO. 


271 


spirit 
r\cl  of 
|feii:;n 
the 
her 
the 


I 


big  blue-eyed  baby  to  a  wonderfully  painted  dance 
blanket.  When  we  expressed  curiosity  at  the  latter, 
the  pretty  Russian  seized  the  <;reat  i)iece  of  fringed 
and  painted  deerskin,  and,  wrapping  it  about  her 
shouldeVs,  threw  her  head  back  with  fine  pose,  and 
stood  as  an  animated  tableau  in  the  tlusk  and  fire- 
light of  her  Alaska  chalet.  "This  was  a  cultns  pot- 
Idtcli,''  she  said,  with  a  dainty  accent,  as  she  explained 
the  way  it  came  into  her  possession,  and  we  all 
laughed  at  the  way  the  Chinook  jargon  interprets 
that  dilettante  word  as  meaning  "worthless."  The 
Countess  told  us  a  better  one  about  her  asking  a 
trader  what  had  become  of  a  man  who  used  to  live  at 
Sitka,  and  the  trader  answering  her  that  he  was 
'wultusing  'A\o\x\\f\  here  somewhere."  IMiis  Russian 
family  was  most  interesting  to  us.  and.  setting  aside 
all  traditions  of  his  rank,  the  Nihilist  Count  talked 
business  with  the  captain  in  a  most  American 
manner,  and,  but  for  the  inherent  accent  and  rir,  a 
listener  might  have  taken  him  for  the  most  practical 
of  business  men,  whose  whole  life  had  been  spent  in 
commercial  marts,  or  as  agent  for  a  great  trading 
company. 

All  of  these  kind  ])eople  helped  to  show  us  about  the 
place,  and  give  us  bits  of  local  history  on  the  way. 
and  from  them  we  learned  that  the  Indian  name 
Howkan  means  a  fallen  stone,  an(i  this  village  was 
railed  so  on  account  of  a  peculiar  boulder  that  lay  on 
the  beach.  Like  other  places  in  Alaska,  it  has  several 
names,  and  several  ways  of  spelling  each  of  them 
The  traders  call  it  oftener  Kaigahnec  than  llowkan, 
although  old  Kaigahnee.  the  original  village  of  that 
name,  is  many  miles  distant   from  this  place  of  the 


272 


SOCrHKHX   ALASKA. 


fallen  stone.  The  missionaries  named  it  "Jackson" 
in  honor  of  the  Rev.  Sheldon  Jackson,  the  projector 
and  manajj^er  of  Preshyterian  missions  in  Akiska,  and 
tb  i  Post  Office  Department  rec()<;ni'/ed  it  as  "  Haida 
Mission "  when  the  blanks  and  cancellinf;-  stamps 
were  sent  out  for  the  small  post-office.  A  request 
was  made  by  the  mission  people  to  have  the  place 
put  down  as  Jackson  on  the  new  charts,  since  issued 
by  the  Coast  Survey,  but  the  commander  of  the 
surveying  steamer  opposed  it  as  an  act  of  vandalism, 
and  on  the  maps  it  still  retains  the  harsh  old  Indian 
name  by  which  it  has  been  known  for  centuries. 

The  village  fronts  on  two  crescent  beaches,  and  a 
long,  rocky  point  running  out  into  the  water  fairly 
divides  it  into  two  villages,  so  separate  are  their  water 
fronts.  A  fleet  of  graceful  llaida  canoes  was  drawn 
up  on  the  first  and  larger  beach,  all  of  them  carefully 
filled  with  grass  and  covered  over,  and  their  owners 
joined  in  receiving  the  visitors,  and  accompanied  us 
on  our  sight-seeing  tour.  The  houses  at  Howkan  are 
large  and  well  built,  and  the  village  is  remarkably 
clean.  Some  of  the  chiefs  have  weatherboarded  their 
houses  and  put  in  glass  windows  and  hinged  doors, 
but  before  or  beside  nearly  ev^ery  house  rises  the  tall, 
ancestral  fo/em  poles  that  constitute  the  glory  of  the 
place. 

Skolka,  one  of  the  great  chiefs,  has  a  large  house 
guarded  by  two  tofrm  poles,  and  at  his  offer  the 
house  had  been  occupied  for  two  years  as  a  school- 
room by  the  mission  teacher.  A  flagstaff  and  a 
skeleton  bell-tower  were  added  to  the  exterior  decora- 
tions of  his  house  in  consequen'c.  and  Skolka  was 
the  envy  of  all  the  Kaigahnees.    Skolka  is  a  wise  and 


TUK   SlTKjy    AlH  HirKLAdO. 


27;i 


liberal  chieftain,  and  a  nicnil)t.:r  of'  tlu;  lui.i;lc  taniiiy. 
ICffigies  of  that  tv)teinic  bird  surmount  the  poles 
before  his  house,  and  on  one  pole  ajipears  the  whis- 
kered face  of  a  white  man,  capped  by  an  cajole,  and 
finished  with  the  imaircs  of  two  chiUh-en  wearinji  the 
steeple-crowned  mandarin  hats  of  the  Tyees.  Skolka 
explains  these  images  as  telliti};  tlu-  story  of  one  of  his 
ancestors,  who  was  a  famous  woman  of  the  Kajjjle  clan. 
She  went  out  for  salmon  eggs  one  day,  and  when  she 


rOTF.M    rii|,l>.    W     KAh.W    i>K     lliiWKW. 


house 
IX  the 
school- 
land  a 
lecora- 
:a  was 
Ise  and 


drew  up  her  canoe  on  the  beach  upon  her  return,  she 
had  several  baskets  filled.  \ot  seeing  her  two  little 
children,  she  called  t<^  them,  but  thcv  rnn  and  hid. 
Later  she  called  them  again,  and  they  atiswered  her 
from  the  woods  with  tlie  voices  of  crows.  Her  worst 
fears  were  realized  when  she  found  that  a  white  man. 
"a  Boston  man,"  had  carried  them  off  in  a  ship. 
These  two  orphans  never  returned  to  their  people. 
Such  is  the  simple  kidnapping  story  that  has  been 
handed  down  in  Skolka's  family  for  generations,  and 


274 


sorrilHUN   ALASKA. 


this  whiskered  face  on  the  /o/cw  pole  is  said  to  be 
almost  the  only  instance  of  a  Boston  man  attaining 
immortality  in  these  i)icture-vvritings. 

"  Mr.  John "  is  another  fine-looking  chief,  who 
dresses  in  civilized  style,  and  is  rather  proud  of  his 
advanced  ways  of  living  and  thinking.     He  lives  in  a 


IMK   (  IIIFKS    RKSIHKNt  K     \l     KAKIAN.    >ll(i\\l\i.     1 1  M  |  M    I'oI.KS. 


large  honse  ncnr  Skolka,  nnd  has  n  grand  old  to/n>/ 
|)olo  before  his  doorway.  In  his  queer  idiom  he 
tells  one.  "T  am  :i  ("row,  but  my  wife  is  a  Whale;" 
and  as  Mrs.  John  is  of  generous  build,  there  is  lurk- 
ing sarcasm  in  his  statement. 

The  deceased  chief,  Mr.  Jim,  left  some  fine  /ofr>// 
poles  behind  him,  and  on  the  second  beach  of  the 
village  there  is  a  semicircle  of  ancient  moss-grown 
/(jfrm  poles  standing  guard  over  ruined  and  deserted 
houses.  The  mosses,  the  lichens,  and  the  vines  cling 
tenderly  to  these  strange  old  monuments  of  the 
people,  and,  in  the  crevices  of  the  carvings,  grasses, 


THE   SITKAN   AECHIPKLAnO. 


27 '5 


\totciti 
If  the 
[rovvn 
lerted 
cling 
If   the 
lasses, 


ferns,  and  even  young  trees  have  taken  root  and 
thrive.  Back  in  the  dense  undergrowth  rise  the 
mortuary  poles,  the  carved  totems  and  emblems  that 
mark  the  graves  of  dead  and  gone  Haidas.  Skolka's 
father  and  uncles  have  fine  images  over  their  burial 
boxes,  and  from  the  head  of  'tiie  ICagle  on  one  of 
these  mortuary  columns,  a  small  fir-tree,  taking  root, 
has  grown  to  a  height  of  eight  or  ten  feet.  In  this 
burying  ground  there  are  large  boxes  filled  with  the 
bones  and  ashes  t)f  those  said  to  have  died  when  the 
great  epidemics  raged  among  the  islands  a  half  cen- 
tury ago. 

We  found  the  Howkan  ship-yard  under  a  large 
shed,  and  the  canoe  builder  showed  us  two  cedar 
canoes  that  were  nearly  completed.  The  high-beaked 
Haida  canoes  are  slender  and  graceful  ns  Venetian 
gondolas,  and  the  small,  light  canoes  that  they  use  in 
hunting  sea  otter  are  marvels  of  boat-building.  The 
shapely  skiffs  that  the  boat  builder  showed  us  had 
been  hewn  from  single  logs  of  red  cedar,  and  were 
ready  to  be  braced  and  steamed  into  their  graceful 
curving  lines.  Our  admiration  of  the  work  caused 
him  to  offer  a  light,  otter-hunter's  canoe  for  fifty 
dollars,  but  not  one  of  the  company  made  a  purchase. 
In  one  house  we  found  a  paralyzed  man  lying  on  a 
couch  in  the  middle  of  the  one  great  room,  and  the 
relatives  gathered  about  him  soon  brought  out  their 
treasures  and  offered  them  for  sale. 

Like  all  of  their  tribe,  these  Kaigahnee  Haidas  are 
an  intelligent  and  superior  people,  skilled  in  the  arts 
of  war  and  the  crafts  of  peace,  and  their  carvers 
have  \  "ought  matchless  totem  poles,  canoes,  bowls, 
.spoons,  halibut  clubs  and    hooks,  from    time  imme- 


276 


SUnilF.liS    ALASKA. 


niorial.  These  carvings  show  finer  work  and  better 
ideas  than  the  art  relics  of  the  other  tribes,  and  in 
silver  work  thev  unite  surpass  the  rest  of  the 
Thlinkets;  although  it  is  now  claimed  that  they  are 
not  Thlinkets,  differing  from  them  materially  in  their 
language  and  tratliti(ins,  while  they  have  the  same 
totemic  system,  familiar  spirits,  and  customs.     The 


II  \I  IIU    I     llixiK, 


Haida  women  were  all  adorned  with  beautifully  made 
bracelets,  and  the  superiority  of  Haida  workmanshij) 
and  designs  is  proven  by  the  way  that  the  Indians,  even 
;tt  Sitka,  boast  of  their  bracelets  being  Haida  work. 
Kenowin  is  the  chief  silversmith,  and  his  daughter  wore 
a  pair  of  broad  gold  bracelets  carved  with  the  Eagle 
totem.  Gold  is  very  rarely  worn  by  the  Indians,  and 
they  hardly  seem  to  value  the  yellow  metal,  although 
some  Haida  silversmiths  have  worked   in  jewellers' 


THE  SITKAS   AUillJl'KLAGO. 


277 


Imade 

Insbip 
even 
Iwovk. 
wore 
tagle 
and 
ioug;b 
lellers 


stores  in  Victoria  successfully,  and  learned  the  pro- 
cesses of  acid  treatments.  Tlie  liaitla  rules  of  art,  br 
vvhicli  they  conventionalize  any  animal  they  depict,  are 
very  exact,  and  on  the  large  bracelet,  shown  in  a  pre- 
vious illustration,  the  cinnamon  bears  represented  a.s 
advancinj;  in  i)i()tile  are  joined  in  one  full,  j;rinnin^ 
face  which  is  recognized  as  the  Haida  crest.  Tlieir 
totemic  Ka^le  has  now  degenerated  into  a  base  copy 
of  the  birtl  on  American  coins,  but  otherwise  their 
art  rules  and  traditions  are  unj)erverted.  The  key 
and  original  idea  in  many  of  their  designs  is  the 
strange  marking  like  a  peacock's  eye  found  on  the 
back  of  the  skate  fish  or  scul|)in,  and  besides  carving 
it  on  all  their  solid  belongiiig.s.  ihcv  tattoo  the 
emblem  on   their  bodies. 

These  Kaigahnees  have  a  curious  tradition,  related 
to  us  by  the  resident  teacher,  that  (|uite  resembles 
the  bibUcal  story  of  the  ark  and  the  Hood.  (.)ne  old 
Indian  now  ckiims  to  have  the  b.irk  ro|)e  which  held 
the  anchor  of  the  big  canoe  when  it  restetl  on  the 
high  mountain  bark  oi  Howkan.  'i'hey  have  also  a 
story  resembling  that  of  Lot's  wife,  only  .Sodom  and 
Gomorrah  were  on  Forrester  Island,  and  a  brother 
and  sister,  fleeing  from  a  pestilence,  were  turned  to 
stone,  because  the  woman  looked  back  while  crossing 
the  river.  Their  houses  were  petrified  as  well,  and 
the  petrified  bodies  of  the  disobedient  ones  still  stand 
in  the  river  to  tell  the  tale. 

When  Wiggin's  storms  were  being  promised  to  the 
whole  North  American  continent,  in  March,  i8<S.?,  a 
white  man  at  Kasa-an  Hay  read  the  prophecies,  and 
explained  them  to  the  Indians.  The  warning  spread 
rapidly  from   island    to   island,  and    at    Howkan  tlie 


278 


80UTUEBN  ALASKA. 


natives  began  moving  their  things  to  the  high  ground, 
and  were  carrying  up  water  and  provisions  for  one 
whole  afternoon.  They  believed  that  the  promised 
tidal  wave  was  coming,  and  at  the  time  set  for  the 
storm,  began  to  say,  "Victoria  all  gone."  There  was 
a  heavy  storm  outside  that  March  night,  antl  the 
agent  of  the  trading  comj)any,  returning  from  the 
Klin([uan  fishery  in  a  whale-boat,  was  drowned  by  a 
wave  upsetting  the  boat  as  he  let  go  the  tiller  to  furl 
the  sail. 

It  was  at  Port  Hazan,  across  Dall  Island,  that  one  of 
the  Kaigahnees,  whom  we  saw,  found  the  remains  of 
Paymaster  Walker,  who  was  lost  with  the  steamer 
Georgf  S.  li'rij^/if,  in  Februars,  1S73.  Phe  loss  of 
the  Wrii^^/it  was  one  of  the  tragedies  of  the  sea,  and 
is  still  a  current  topic  in  Alaska.  'Pho  steamer  left 
.Sitka  on  its  return  trip  to  Portland  with  several  army 
officers  and  their  families  and  residents  on  board. 
It  was  last  seen  at  Cordova  Bay,  on  the  south  end  of 
Prince  jf  Wales  Island,  and,  in  the  face  of  warnings, 
the  captain  put  out  to  sea  in  a  heavy  storm,  —  as  he 
was  hurrying  to  Portland  for  his  wedding.  It  is  sup- 
posed that  the  sliij)  foundered,  or  struck  a  rock  in 
Queen  Charlotte  .Sound.  The  most  terrible  anxiety 
prevailed  as  week  after  week  went  by,  with  no  tidings 
of  the  Wrig/ity  and  the  feeling  wa.s  intensified  when 
the  rumor  was  started  that  it  had  been  wrecked  near 
a  village  of  Kuergefath  Indians,  and  that  the  sur- 
vivors had  been  tortured  and  put  to  death.  Two 
years  after  the  disappearance  of  the  Wrii^/it,  the  body 
of  Major  Walker  was  found  in  Port  Bazan,  recogni- 
zable only  by  fragments  of  his  uniform,  that  had 
been  held  to  him  by  a  life-preserver.     Other  remains 


rHi-:  siTKiy  AHdiU'y.LAao. 


279 


ll  when 
Id  near 
ic   sur- 
Two 
le  body 
;cogni- 
|at  had 
emains 


and  fragments  of  the  wreck  were  then  found  in  the 
recesses  of  the  ocean  shores  of  tlie  i^hmd,  and  the 
mystery  of  the  lVr'i\'-/il  was  at  last  solved. 

Further  up  this  coast,  beyond  the  Klawock  can- 
nery, the  mission  has  a  branch  statitjn  and  a  saw- 
mill, and,  in  time,  will  establish  a  school  in  this 
Shakan  Island. 

On  my  'second  visit  to  Kaigahnee  Straits,  the  A/i- 
con  dropped  anchor  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning, 
and  it  was  up  and  off  again  befoie  five  o'clock.  A 
few  enthusiasts  did  manage  to  rt)W  (;ver  to  llovvkan 
and  back,  but  the  rest  of  us  were  contented  with  one 
sleepy  glance  at  the  little  settleiuent  that,  in  a  year's 
time,  had  surrounded  the  Northwest  Trading  Com- 
pany's stores  in  American  Ha\.  It  was  with  great 
regret  that  we  woke  again  to  find  the  ship  sailing 
over  the  most  placid  of  waters,  as  it  coursed  up 
Di.xon  Entrance.  It  touched  at  Cape  Fox,  where  we 
enjoyed  the  last  of  our  delights  and  experiences  on 
Alaska  shores,  stopped  in  a  twilight  rain  at  Tongass, 
and  then  slipped  across  the  boundary  line  at  night, 
.md  gave  us  all  over  again  those  enchanting  days 
along  the  British  Cokunbia  coast. 


280 


HOUTUEUy  ALASKA. 


CHAITKR   XXI. 


THE    MliTLAKATLAH    MISSION. 


ON  occasional  trips  the  steamer  anchors  off  Mctla- 
katlah,  tlie  model  mission-station  of  the  north- 
west coast,  and  an  Arcadian  villa«;e  of  civilizetl 
Indians,  l)uilt  round  a  bay  on  the  Chimsyan  Penin- 
sula, in  liritish  Columbia.  Metlakatlah  is  just  below 
the  Alaska  boundary  line,  and  but  a  little  way  south 
of  Fort  Simpson,  the  chief  Hudson  Jiay  Company 
trading  i>ost  of  the  region,  where  the  great  canoe 
market,  and  the  feasts  and  dances  of  the  Indians, 
enliven  that  centre  of  tr^Je  each  fall. 

It  was  a  rainy  morning  when  the  Idaho  anchored 
off  Metlakatlah,  and  the  small  boats  took  us  through 
tlie  drizzle  and  across  a  gentle  ground-swell  to  the 
landing  wharf  at  the  missionary  village.  We  were 
met  there  by  Mr.  Duncan,  one  of  the  noblest  men 
that  ever  entered  the  mission  field.  He  left  mer- 
cantile life  to  take  up  this  work,  and  was  sent  out  bv 
the  Knglish  Church  Missionary  Society  in  1857.  He 
spent  the  first  four  years  in  working  among  the 
Indians  at  Fort  Simpson,  but  the  evils  and  tempta- 
tions surrounding  such  a  place  quite  offset  his  efforts, 
and  he  decided  to  go  off  by  himself  and  gather  the 
Indians  about  him  at  some  place  where  they  would  be 


TlIK   SITKAN    AHt  nil'KI.AnO. 


281 


f  Mctla- 
i  north- 

1  Penin- 
st  below 
iy  south 
Company 


U 


canoe 
ncluiHS, 


mchoved 
through 
to  the 
\\c  were 
est  men 
ft   mer- 
nt  out  by 

long   the 

l1  tempta- 

is  efforts, 

ather  the 

would  be 


safe  from  other  influences.  Kifty  Chimsyans  started 
with  him  to  found  the  villa<;c  ot  Mctlakatlah,  and,  in 
the  twenty-odd  years,  Micy  have  built  up  a  model 
town  that  tliey  have  reason  to  be  proud  of.  When 
they  first  went  there,  a  stiip  ol  the  land  was  marked 
off  for  church  purj)()ses,  and  the  rest  of  it  divided 
amon^  the  Indian^  ll  was  considered  a  lioubtful 
experiment  at  first,  but  Mr.  iJunc.m  put  !ns  whole 
heart  and  soul  mto  the  enterprise,  and  e\\  v  Indian 
who  went  with  him  signed  a  temperarc  pledge, 
agreed  to  give  up  theii  mcdicine-incn  t.  advisenj  in 
sickness,  and  to  do  no  v  ork  on  the  Sabbath.  His 
faith  huA  ucen  proven  in  the  results  attained,  and  the 
self-respecting,  self-supportinj;  community  at  Metla- 
katlah  proves  that  the  Inchan  can  be  civilized  as  well 
ah  etlucated  in  one  generation,  if  the  right  man  y^d 
the  right  means  are  emjjloyed. 

At  the  end  of  twenty-three  year.s  there  is  a  wcll- 
laid-out  village,  with  two-story  houses,  sidewalks, 
and  street  lamps.  A  large  Gothic  church  has  been 
built,  with  a  comfortable  rectory  adjoining,  and  around 
the  village-green  a  school-house,  a  jniblic  hall,  and  a 
store  are  prominent  buildings.  All  of  these  struc- 
tures have  been  built  b\  the  Indians,  and,  with  their 
own  saw-mill  and  ])laning-mill,  they  have  turned  out 
the  lumber  and  woodwork  required  for  the  public 
buildings  and  their  own  houses.  Mr.  Duncan  has 
taught  them  all  these  necessary  arts,  working  with 
them  himself,  and  dividing  the  profits  of  their  labors 
among  the  Indians.  Under  his  manaf;ement  the 
Indians  have  established  their  cannery  and  store  as  a 
joint-stock  company,  and  these  once  savage  islanders 
understand  the  scheme,  and  draw  their  dividends  as 


282 


SOUTHERN    ALASKA. 


gravely  as  if  their  ancestors  had  always  done  so  be- 
fore them.  The  cannery  is  a  model  of  neatness,  the 
salmon  being  headed  and  cleaned  on  an  anchored 
boat  far  off  shore,  and  brought  to  the  cannery  all 
ready  to  be  cut  ant!  fitted  into  tins.  Everything  is 
done  by  the  Indians  themselves,  from  making  the 
cans  to  filling,  soldering,  heating,  varnishing,  label- 
ing, and  packing,  and  the  Metlakatlah  salmon  bring 
the  highest  pvkc  in  the  London  market,  and  each 
year  handsome  dividends  are  paid  to  the  islanders. 
An  average  of  si.\  thousand  cases  are  shipped  every 
year,  and  each  visitor  that  morning  bought  a  can  of 
the  Skeena  River  salmon  to  carry  off  as  a  souvenir  of 
Metlakatlah. 

The  women  have  been  taught  to  spin  and  weave 
the  fleece  of  the  mountain  goat  into  heavy  cloths, 
shawls,  and  blankets.  Boots,  shoes,  ropes,  and  leather 
are  also  made  at  Metlakatlah,  and  there  is  a  good 
carpenter  shop  in  the  town.  A  telephone  connects 
the  village  store  with  the  saw-mill  a  few  miles  dis- 
tant, and  the  Indians  ring  up  the  men  at  the  other 
end  of  the  wire,  and  "hello"  to  their  brother  Chim- 
syans  in  the  most  matter-of-fact  manner.  The  steam- 
launch  belonging  to  the  cannery  is  engineered  by 
one  of  their  number,  and  the  \  illage  compares  favor- 
ably with  any  of  the  small  saw-mill  settlements  of 
whites  on  Puget  Sound. 

While  we  wandered  about  the  village  under  the 
escort  of  Mr.  Duncan  and  his  faithful  David,  the 
members  of  the  brass  band  gathered  themselves  to- 
gether and  played  '*  Marching  Through  Georgia," 
**  Yankee  Doodle,"  and  other  of  our  national  anthems 
in   honor    of    the   American    visitors.      Twenty   stal- 


I 


THE  SITKAN  ARCHIPELAGO. 


263 


wart  Indians  comprise  the  full  band,  and,  although 
nearly  half  of  the  musicians  were  off  salmon  fishing, 
those  left  did  some  most  excellent  playing  on  horn, 
cornet,  and  trombone,  and  sent  farewell  strains  over 
the  water  as  we  got  into  the  small  boats  and  \vere 
pulled  away  to  the  ship.  The  Indians  keep  a  visit- 
ors' house  at  the  landing  for  the  entertainment  of 
friends  in  the  adjoining  tribes,  and  on  the  night  pre- 
ceding our  arrival  there  had  been  a  grand  hanc[uet 
and  ball  in  honor  of  some  canoe-loads  of  J  laidas,  who 
had  come  to  pass  a  few  days  at  these  guest-houses  of 
Metlakatlah.  We  found  the  J  laidas  looking  much 
dilapidated  on  the  morning  after  the  ball,  and  among 
the  picturesque  groujis  sitting  about  the  great  square 
fireplace  there  was  the  most  beautiful  Indian  maiden 
seen  on  the  coast.  The  Ilaida  beauty  had  a  warm, 
yellow  skin,  with  a  damask  bloom  on  her  checks, 
a  pair  of  large,  soft,  black  eyes,  and  dazzling  teeth. 
She  gave  a  shy  smile,  and  dropped  her  eyes  before 
the  admiring  gaze  and  the  exclamations  of  the  party, 
and  the  susceptible  young  men  from  the  ship  imme- 
diately offered  to  stop  off  and  st:i\-  with  Mi  Duncan 
for  a  while.  The  Haidas  had  many  curious  things 
with  them,  ano  evinced  a  proper  desire  to  make 
trade.  One  woman  wore  a  ])air  ot  wide,  gold  brace- 
lets, engraved  with  tiie  totemic  eagle  and  the  Maida 
crest,  aiKi,  ))utcing  iier  price  at  eighty  dollars,  sat 
stoical  ard  silent  through  all  the  offviMs  of  smaller 
sums.  They  had  fine  silver  bracelets,  horn  spoons, 
and  carved  trit^.es  of  copper  and  wood  with  them,  but 
the  desirable  things  were  some  miniature  totem  poles 
carved  out  of  black  slate  stone,  and  inlaid  with  piece- 
of   abalone  shell   to  represent   green  and    glistenin:; 


J 


284 


SOUTH KliN   ALASKA. 


1. 

u 


eyes  for  each  heraldic  monster.  These  little  totem 
poles  are  made  of  a  soft  slate  found  near  Skidegate 
on  the  Queen  Charlotte  Islands.  When  first  quar- 
ried it  is  very  soft  and  easily  worked,  hut  hardens  in 
a  short  time,  and  will  crack  if  exposed  to  the  sun  or 
heat.  It  takes  a  fine  polish,  and  for  the  small  slate 
columns,  fourteen  and  ei*;htcen  inches  hi^h,  the  In- 
dians asked  seven  and  ten  dollars.  We  afterwards 
saw  dozens  and  scores  of  these  slate  totems  at  the 
curio  stores  in  Victoria,  and  thouj;h  there  seemed  to 
be  a  sufficient  supply  of  them  for  all  the  tourists  of  a 
season,  the  prices  ranged  from  twenty  to  eighty 
dollars,  and  for  j)laques  anri  boxes  of  carved  slate 
the  demand  was  proportionately  higher. 

It  was  with  real  regret  that  wc  ))arted  with  Mr. 
Duncan  at  the  wharf,  and  il  was  not  until  we  were 
well  over  the  water  that  we  learned  of  the  serpent  or 
the  skeleton  in  this  paradise.  Though  Metlakatlah 
inight  rightly  be  considered  Mr.  Duncan's  own  par- 
ticular domain,  and  the  Indians  have  proved  their 
appreciation  of  his  unselfish  labors  l>y  a  love  and 
devotion  rare  in  such  races,  his  plainest  rights  have 
been  invaded  and  trouble  brewed  among  h  s  people. 
Two  years  ago  a  bishop  was  appointed  tor  the  dio- 
cese, which  includes  Fort  Simjison,  Metlakatlah,  and 
a  few  other  missions,  i'^u't  Simpson  is  the  older 
and  larger  mission  settlement,  and  the  higher  officers 
of  the  church  have  always  resided  there,  but  Bishop 
Ridley,  disapproving  of  Mr.  Duncan's  IvOw  Church 
principles,  went  to  Metlakatlah  and  took  possession 
as  a  superior  officer,  Mr.  Duncan  moved  from  the 
rectory,  and  the  bishop  took  charge  of  the  church 
services.     In  countless  ways  a  spirit  of  antagonism 


riiK  siTKAy  Alii  Hirh:LA<;o. 


285 


was  raised  that  almost  threatened  a  war  at  one  time. 
The  bishop  informed  the  Indians  that  their  store 
and  warehouse  was  situated  on  ground  belonginj;  to 
the  ehurch.  Instead  of  compromising,  or  leaving  it 
there  under  his  jurisdiction,  the  matter-of-fact  Met- 
lakatlans  went  in  a  body,  pulled  down  the  building, 
and  set  it  up  outside  the  prescribed  limits.  In  en- 
deavoring to  prevent  this,  the  bishop  was  roughl)- 
handled,  and  as  he  appreciated  the  hostile  spirit  of 
the  greatest  part  of  the  community  he  sent  to  Vic- 
toria, asking  the  protection  of  a  British  man-of-war. 
The  whole  stay  of  the  bishop  has  been  marked  by 
trouble  and  turbuici^.ce,  and  these  scamlalous  distur- 
bances in  a  Christian  commimity  cannot  fail  to  have 
an  influence  for  evil,  and  undo  some  of  the  good 
work  that  has  been  done  there.  Mr.  Duncan  made 
no  reference  to  his  troubles  during  the  morning  that 
we  spent  at  Metlakatlah,  and  his  desire  that  we 
should  see  and  know  what  his  followers  were  capable 
of,  and  understand  what  they  had  accomplished  for 
themselves,  gav".'  us  to  infer  that  everything  was 
peace  and  happiness  in  the  colony.  One  hears  noth- 
ing but  praise  of  Mr.  Dimcan  up  and  down  the  coast, 
and  can  understand  the  strong  partisanship  he  in- 
spires among  even  the  roughest  [)eoi)lo,  His  face 
alone  is  a  passport  for  jiiety,  goodness,  and  benevo- 
lence anywhere,  and  his  honest  blue  e\es,  his  kindlv 
smile,  and  cheery  manner  go  sti'aight  to  the  heart  ol 
the  most  savage  Indian.  His  dusky  parishioners 
worship  hinij  as  he  well  deserves,  and  in  his  twenty- 
seven  years  among  them  they  have  only  the  un 
broken  record  of  his  kindness,  his  devotion,  his 
unselfish    and    honorable    treatment   of    them.     He 


28fi 


SOUTHERN   A LASh'A. 


found  them  drunken  savapjes,  and  he  has  made  them 
civilized  men  and  Christians.  He  has  taught  them 
trades,  and  there  has  seemed  to  be  no  limit  to  this 
extraordinary  man's  abilities.  When  his  hair  had 
whitened  in  this  noble,  unselfish  work,  and  the  fruits 
of  his  labor  had  become  apparent,  nothing  could  have 
been  more  cruel  and  unjust  than  to  undo  his  work, 
scatter  dissension  among  his  people,  and  make  Metla- 
katlah  a  reproach  instead  of  an  honor  to  the  society 
which  has  sanctioned  such  a  wrong.  An  actual  crime 
has  been  committed  in  the  name  of  Religion,  by  this 
persistent  attempt  to  destroy  the  peace  and  pros- 
perity of  Metlakatlah  and  drive  away  the  man  who 
founded  and  made  that  village  what  it  was.  British 
Columbia  is  long  and  broad,  and  there  are  a  hundred 
places  where  others  can  begin  as  Mr.  Duncan  began, 
and  where  the  bishop  can  do  good  by  his  i)resence. 
If  it  was  Low  Church  doctrines  that  made  the  Metla- 
katlah people  what  they  were  a  few  years  since,  all 
other  teachings  should  be  given  up  at  mission  sta- 
tions. Discord,  enmity,  and  sorrow  have  succeeded 
the  introduction  of  ritualism  at  Metlakatlah,  and 
though  it  cannot  fairly  be  said  to  be  the  inevitable 
result  of  such  teachings,  it  would  afford  an  irterest- 
ing  comparison  if  the  Ritualists  would  go  off  by 
themselves  and  establish  a  second  Metlakatlah  as  a 
test. 

A  later  expression  of  opinion  on  the  troubles  of 
Metlakatlah  appears  in  the  last  annual  report  (1884) 
to  the  Dominion  Government,  by  Colonel  Powell, 
Superintendent  of  Indians  in  British  Columbia.  He 
writes  as  follows  :  — 

"  I  am  exceedingly  sorry  to  state  that  serious  trou- 


TiiK  siiKAy  AH(  nu'hi.Aan. 


2H7 


|)ies  of 
1884) 
owell, 
He 


Me  and  the  most  unhappy  reli<2^ioiis  rancor  still  exists 
at  Metlakatlah,  dividing  the  Indians,  and  causini,^  infi- 
nite dama<;e  to  Christianity  in  adjacent  localities, 
where  sides  are  taken  with  one  or  other  of  the  con- 
tending; parties.  The  retirement  of  cither  or  botli 
would  seem  the  only  true  solution  of  the  difficulties, 
\nd  if  the  latter  alternative  is  not  desirable,  and  as 
fully  nine  tenths  of  the  people  are  unanimous  and 
determined  in  their  supjiort  of  Mr.  Duncan,  the  with- 
drawal of  the  agents  of  the  society  to  more  congenial 
headquarters  would,  1  think,  be  greatly  in  the  inter- 
ests of  all  concerned.  Since  the  schism  has  occurred, 
the  larger  following  of  Mr.  Duncan  have  resolved 
themselves  into  an  independent  society,  with  that 
gentleman  as  their  guide  and  leader.  The  forms  of 
the  Anglican  Church  have  been  discarded,  and  they 
have  designated  themselves  '  The  Christian  Church 
of  Metlakatlah,'  each  member  of  which  subscribes  to 
a  declaration  pledging  themselves  to  exclusively  fol- 
low the  teachings  of  the  l^iblc  as  the  rule  of  faith, 
and  that  they  will,  to  the  utmost  of  their  power,  pre- 
vent any  divisions  among  the  villagers,  and  do  their 
utmost  to  i^omote  the  s[)iritual  and  temporal  pros- 
perit\'  of  the  community.  This  association  includes 
all  the  young  and  active  residents  of  the  village, 
hence  they  are  all  enthusiastic  and  determined  in 
their  desire  for  success.  In  addition  to  the  large 
store,  which,  I  was  told,  belonged  to  the  Indians, 
and  was  a  co-operative  arrangement,  Mr.  Duncan  has 
devoted  his  spare  energies  to  the  establishment  of  a 
salmon  cannery,  which,  he  informed  me,  was  placed 
upon  the  same  footing.  This  has  afforded  employ- 
ment for  a  great    majority   of    the  inhabitants,   and 


2^H 


soiTlltJIiS   ALASKA. 


has  kept  them  so  busy  for  the  last  few  months  that 
happily  they  have  had  no  time  to  give  to  contention. 
The  secret  of  Mr.  Duncan's  great  popularity  with  the 
Indians  at  Metlakatlah  is  his  desire  and  fondness 
for  inaugurating  industries,  which,  after  all,  is  the 
strongest  bond  that  can  be  made  to  unite  these  people. 
The  present  difficulties,  however,  at  Metlakatlah  can- 
not continue  much  longer  without  culminating  in 
serious  consequences,  means  to  avert  which,  of  what- 
ever nature  they  may  be,  should  be  promptly  and 
effectually  enforced." 


THE  iSllKA^   AJitlJIl'LLAGO. 


2Mi 


ClIAPTKK   XXII. 


HOMi:\VAKI)    HOL'NO. 

T     IFE  on  the  waveless  arms  of   the  ocean  has  a 
'L-'  great  fascination  for  one  on  these  Alaska  trips 
and  crowded  with  novelty,  incidents,  and  surprises  as 
each  day  is,  the  cruise  seems  all  too  short   when  the 
end  approaches.     One  dreads  to  oct  to  land  aoain  and 
end  the  easy,  idle  wanderin;;-  throuoh  the  lono-  archi- 
pelago.     A    voyage    is    but    one    l)rotractecrmarine 
picnic    and  an    unbroken    succession    ot    memorable 
days.      Where  in  all  the  list  of  them  to  place  the  red 
letter  or  the  white  stone  puzzles  one.    The  passengers 
beg  the  captain  to  reverse  the  engines,  or  boldly  turn 
back  and  keep  up  the  cruise  until  the  autumn  gales 
make  us  willing  to  return  to  the  ic-ion  of   earthly 
cares  and  responsibilities,  daily  mails  and  telegraph 
wires.  The  long,  nightless  days  never  lose  theirlpell 
and  in  retrospect  the  wonders  of  the  northland  appear 
the  greater.     The  weeks  of   continuous    travel  over 
deep,    placid   waters    in    the   midst    of     magnificent 
scenery   might  be  a  journey  of  exploration  o^ii  a  new 
continent,  so  different   is  it   from    anything  else  in 
American  travel.     Seldom  is  anything  but  an  Indian 
canoe  met,  for  days  no  signs  of  a  settlement  are  seen 
along  the  quiet  fiords,  and,  making  nocturnd  visits  to 


290 


snr'niKT{.\  alasf^a. 


i  ; 


i  I 


small  fisheries,  only  the  unbroken  wilderness  is  in 
sight  (luring  waking  hours.  The  anchoring  in  strange 
places,  the  going  to  nnd  fro  in  small  boats,  the  queer 
peoi)le,  the  strange  life,  the  i)eculiar  fascination  of  the 
frontier,  and  the  novelty  of  the  whr)le  thing,  affect 
one  strongly.  ICach  arm  of  the  sea  and  the  unknown, 
unexplored  wilderness  that  lies  back  of  every  mile  of 
slu)re  continually  teinjit  tlie  imagination. 

Along  these  winding  channels  in  "  the  sea  of  moun- 
tains," only  the  rushing  tides  e\er  stir  the  surface  of 
the  waters  where  the  surveyor's  line  drops  one  hun- 
dred, two  hundred,  and  four  hundred  fathoms  without 
finding  bottom,  and  the  navigator  casts  his  lead  for 
miles  without  finding  anchorage.  All  i)iloting  is  b)- 
sight,  and  when  clouds,  fogs,  or  the  long  winter  nights 
of  inky  darkness  obscure  the  landmarks,  the  fog 
whistle  is  kept  going  according  to  regulation,  and  the 
ship's  course  determined  by  the  echoes  flung  back 
from  the  hidden  mountains.  Such  feats  in  time  oi 
fog  gave  zest  to  ship  life,  and  Captain  Carroll,  who 
performed  them,  was  accused  of  being  the  original  of 
Mark  Twain's  man,  who  made  a  collection  of  echoes. 
At  every  place  in  Alaska  he  had  a  particidar  echo  that 
he  brought  out  with  the  cannon's  salute.  At  Fort 
Wrangell  the  hills  repeated  the  shot  five  times  ;  and 
at  Juneau  t  came  back  seven  times,  before  dying 
:■  vay  in  a  long  roll.  At  Sitka  there  was  the  din  of  a 
naval  battle  when  the  cannon  was  fired  point  blank 
at  Mt.  Verstovaia,  and  up  among  the  glaciers,  the 
echoes  drowned  the  thunder  of  the  falling  ice. 

Captain  Carroll,  for  so  many  years  in  command  of 
the  mail  steamer  on  this  Alaska  route,  is  a  genius  in 
his  way,  and  a  character,  a  typical  sea  captain,  a  fine 


THE  SITKAX   AUdUPKI.Mid 


•iyi 


foa 


navigator,  and  a  bold  and  daring  commander,  whose 
skill  and  experience  have  carried  his  ships  through 
the  thousajid  dangers  of  the  Alaska  coast,  lie  is 
a  strict  discij^linarian,  whose  authority  is  supreme, 
ami  the  eticjuette  (if  the  bridge  and  quarter-deck  is 
severely  maintained.  When  he  leaves  the  deck  and 
lays  aside  his  official  countenance,  the  children  play 
and  tumble  over  him  and  cling  to  him,  and  he  is  a 
merciless  joker  with  the  elders.  He  is  possessed  of 
a  fund  of  stories  ami  adventures  that  would  make 
the  fortune  of  a  wit  or  racoutcnr  on  shore,  and  their 
momentary  piquancy,  as  of  salt  water  and  stiff  winds, 
makes  it  impossible  for  un^;  to  repeat  them  well. 
His  fish  stories  are  unequalled,  and  the  desjxiir  of 
the  most  accomj^lished  anglers,  lie  leaves  nothing 
undone  to  promote  the  pleasure  and  comfort  of  his 
passengers,  who  are  in  a  sense  his  guests  ouring  the 
three  or  four  weeks  of  a  summer  pleasure  trip,  and 
gold  watches  and  several  sets  of  resolutions  have 
expressed  appreciation  of  his  courtesy  and  attentions 
to  travellers.  He  is  tleei)lv  interested  in  the  wel- 
fare of  the  region  that  he  lias  seen  slowly  awakening 
to  the  march  of  progress,  and,  being  so  identified 
with  these  early  days  and  the  development  of  the 
territory,  is  destined  to  live  as  an  historic  figure  in 
Alaskan  annals. 

The  }nlot.  Captain  (ieorge,  is  everyone's  friend, 
and  his  patience  and  good  nature  have  to  ?,tand  the 
strain  of  a  steady  questioning  and  cross-e.xamination 
from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  a  cruise.  He  is 
appealed  to  for  all  the  heights,  depths,  distances,  and 
names  along  the  route;  and  finally,  when  everyone 
has   bought   a   large    Hydrographic    Office   chart    of 


\ 


292 


S(>rrilKU\   ALASKA. 


i  \ 


i 

i  • 
i 


Alaska,  Captain  George  is  asked  to  mark  out  the  ship's 
course  through  the  maze  of  island  channels.  He  has 
been  pilot  for  twenty  years  on  the  northwest  coast, 
and  Mr.  Seward  and  many  others  who  saw  the  country 
under  his  guidance  speak  of  him  as  a  Russian.  As 
his  early  home  in  "  tlie  States"  was  at  Oshkosl.,  one 
can  understand  how  that  foreign-sounding  nanu-  mis- 
led people.  He,  as  well  as  all  of  the  shii)'s  ofhcers, 
keeps  a  log  of  each  cruise,  aiul  Captain  (ieorge  has 
furnished  many  notes  and  iu)tices  for  the  Coast  Sur- 
vey jjublications,  and  helps  tiie  memory  of  tiie  tourists, 
who  keep  some  of  the  most  remarkable  journals  and 
tliaries  for  the  first  few  days  of  the  cruise. 

A  character  in  the  lower  rank  on  one  trip  was  the 
captain's  boy,  *' John,"  a  faithful  henchman  and  valet, 
whose  devotion  and  attachment  to  his  master  were 
quite  wonderful.  John  is  a  Swede  1)\'  l)irth,  and  his 
pale-blue  eyes,  fair  ct)mi)le\ion.  and  light  hair  were 
offset  by  a  continuous  array  of  sjjotlessly  white  jackets 
and  ties.  In  the  most  Northern  latitudes  John  would 
tii|)  about  the  deck  witli  his  spry  and  jaunty  tread, 
clad  in  these  snowy  habiliments  of  the  troi)ics,  and 
after  a  ramble  among  Indian  lodges  on  shore,  John 
would  appear  to  our  enraptured  eyes  as  the  very 
apotheosis  of  cleanliness  and  starchy  perfection.  At 
luncheon  one  day  John  set  two  pies  before  the  cap- 
tain, and  announcing  them  as  "  mince  and  apple," 
withdrew  deferentially  behind  his  master's  chair. 
"Which  is  the  apple  i)ie,  John.^"  asked  the  captain, 
as  he  held  a  knife  suspended  over  a  disk  of  golden 
crust.  "The  starboard  pie,  sir,"  said  John  respect- 
fully, and  with  a  seriousness  that  robbed  the  thing 
of  any  intention. 


rilh:   SITKA  \    AUCllU'h'.I.Mio 


IS  the 
valet, 
were 
lul  his 
were 
kets 
oukl 
read, 
,  and 
John 
very 
At 
e  cap- 
pple," 
chah\ 
ptain, 
jolden 
spect- 
thing 


Two  deck  passen*;ers  that  enlivened  the  return  trip 
of  the  hill/to  were  small  black  hear  cubs  four  or  h\c 


mon 


ths  old.     There   was  always  hii^h   revel 


on 


th( 


hurricane  deck  during  the  *' do)^  watches"  when   the 


bears  were 


fed, 


ind  cakes   anil  hnni)s  ot   sugar   from 


the  cabin  table  enticed  them  to  play  pranks.  'I'he 
treacherous  young  bruin  bought  at  Chilk<il  grew  fat 
the    \()vage,  and  was    twice    the   size   of  a  little 


'!-.*'» 


on 

stunted  cub  bought  of  a  trader  at  l'^)rt  W'rangell.  The 
Chilkat  cub  climbed  the  riggi.ig  like  a  born  sailor  after 
a  fortnight's  training,  but  much  teasing  nuule  iiirn 
surly  and  susjjicious,  and  lie  s\(»uid  run  for  the  rat- 
lines at  sight  of  a  man.  h'or  the  latlies,  who  ted  them 
on  sugar  and  salmon  berries,  both  bears  showed  a  great 
loudness,  ami  the  two  clumsy  pets  would  irot  around 
the  deck  after  them  as  tamely  as  kittens,  antl  stand 
up  and  beg  for  sugar  i)lainl\ .  The  little  Fort  W'rangell 
i)ear  would  ciawl  u^)  on  a  bench  beside  one,  antl  make 
plaintive  groans  until  it  w^as  i)etted,  and  it  would  sun 
itself  contentedly  there  for  hours.  They  were  amiable 
))layfellovvs  together,  but  they  were  puz/.leil  and  be- 
witched by  the  agile  little  toy-terrier  "To(>...,"  who 
liveil  on  an  afghan  in  the  caj>tain's  cabin.  That  aris- 
tocratic little  mite  of  a  dog  delighted  to  caper  around 
and  bewilder  the  beais  with  his  cpiick  motii')ns,  and  it 
was  a  tunny  by -play  to  watch  these  young  animals  to- 
gether. One  evening  in  the  (ndf  of  Georgia,  we  lin- 
gerctl  on  deck  to  watch  a  .stormy,  crimscju  sun.set,  and 
after  that,  when  the  moon  rose  like  a  fiery  ball  from 
the  water,  and  faded  to  pale  gold  and  silver  in  the 
zenith,  the  company  grew  musical  and  sang  in  en- 
thusiastic chorus  all  the  good  old  sea  songs.  W^ith 
the  tirst  notes  of  the  music  the  bears  came  pattering 


294 


SOLTllKHS   ALASKA. 


It 


out,  and,  circlin;:;  gravely  before  the  singers,  lay  down, 
lolded  their  lorepaws  before  tliem  in  the  most  hiunun 
attitiule  and  listeneti  attentively  to  "  Nancy  I.ee"  and 
"John  Brown."  Two  yoim;^  fawns,  caught  as  they 
were  swiininini;-  the  channel  near  l"'ort  \\'ran<;ell  one 
inorninj;,  were  quartered  on  the  lower  tleck.  In 
captivity  their  soft  black  eyes  were  sadly  pathetic, 
and  they  were  visiteil  daily  and  fed  on  all  the  dainties 
for  tleer  that  could  be  gathere<l  on  >h<»re.  l"'o\es, 
strange  birds,  Ksquiinaux  dogs,  and  othei  pets  have 
been  passengers  on  the  re'  irn  trips  ol  the  steamer, 
and  the  officers  of  the  ship  iiave  done  then;  share  in 
presenting  animals  to  cHltercnt  city  gardens  and  parks. 

As  the  <:\u\  ot  Vant'onxer  Islanil  (hew  near,  tiie 
scener\  of  the  iiritish  CoUnnbia  c<»ast  gained  in 
beauty,  with  the  j)rospect  of  so  soon  losing  our  wild 
surroundings  After  lea\'ing  Mctlakatlah  tliere  was 
not  a  sign  of  civilization  for  two  days,  and  in  spite  ot 
Huffon  and  Henry  James,  ]y..  we  grew  the  more 
enthusiastic  over  the  "  bi  ute  nature  "  that  so  offends 
those  worldlings.  The  davs  were  clear,  but  one  night 
the  fog  promised  to  be  so  dense  that  the  ship  made 
an  outside  run  from  the  Milbank  co  (Jueon  Charlotte 
Sound,  over  waters  so  still  that  none  suspected  th:it 
we  had  left  the  narrow  inside  channels. 

We  never  met  the  oulikon,  or  "candle  hsh  "  of  this 
coast,  except  as  we  saw  the  piscatorial  torch  at 
grocers*  stores  in  X'ictoria  ;  but  we  sailed  for  four 
hours  through  a  school  of  herring  one  afternoon,  as 
we  neared  the  Vancouver  shore.  Sharks  were  fol- 
lowing them  by  dozens,  and  sea-gulls  flew  overhead, 
ready  to  swoop  upon  the  unlucky  herring  that  jumped 
to  the  enemy  in  the  air  to  escape  the  one  in  the  water. 


THE  SJTKAy   AHCHIPELAGO. 


2^5 


lite  <»! 
more 
'cn<ls 
nii:;iu 
nuuk- 
.rloUc 
thill 

f  this 

ch    al 

r   foul- 

jon,  as 

re  fol- 

head, 
urn  peel 

water. 


n 


Both  times  on  the  return  voyage  we  slipped  through 
Seymour  Narrows  without  knowing  it,  so  smoothly  was 
the  water  boiling  at  the  Hood  tide,  and  so  absorbed 
were  we  once  in  the  soft  poetic  sunset  that  finally  left 
a  glowing  wall  of  orange  in  the  west,  against  which  the 
ragged  forest  line  of  the  summits  and  the  mountain 
masses  were  as  if  carved  in  jet  Looking  upwards, 
even  the  masts  and  spars  were  sharpl)  silhouetted 
against  the  glorious  amber  zenith,  and  it  was  hours 
before  it  faded  to  the  pure  violet  sky  of  such  mid- 
summer nights.  ^ 

Besides  Mt.  St.  I^^lias,  the  Alaska  passengers  always 
beg  for  a  view  of  Bute  Inlet,  which  opens  from  the 
network  of  channels  there  at  the  he;  i  of  the  Gulf  of 
Georgia,  and  runs  far  into  the  heart  of  the  mountain 
ranfc  that  borders  the  mainland  shore.  We  hung 
over  the  captain's  charts  of  the  inlet  with  the  great-^ 
est  interest,  and,  with  his  explanations,  imagination 
could  picture  that  grand  fiord,  not  a  quarter  of  a  mile 
in  width,  and  with  vertical  mountain  walls  that  rise 
from  four  thousand  feet  at  the  entrance,  to  eight 
thousand  feet  above  the  water's  level  at  the  head  of 
the  inlet.  Soundings  of  four  huntlred  fathoms  are 
marked  on  the  chart,  and  with  cascades  and  glaciers 
pouring  into  the  chasm,  little  is  left  for  a  scenic  artist 
to  supply.  A  trail  was  once  cleared  from  the  head  of 
the  inlet  to  the  Cariboo  mining  district  on  the  Fraier 
river,  and  surveys  were  made  looking  to  a  terminus  of 
the  Canadian  Pacific  Railroad,  but  both  have  been 
abandoned,  and  Bute  Inlet  is  not  accessible  by  any 
established  line  or  boats.  Lord  Dufferin  and  the 
Marquis  of  Lome  vi  -ited  it  on  Briti.5h  men-of-war,  and 
carried  its  fame  to  En^jland,  by  extolling  its    scenery 


296 


so UTflETi X  ALASKA. 


as  the  grandest  on  any  coast.  When  Lord  Dufferin 
had  gone  further  up  and  into  Alaska,  he  made  his 
prophecy  that  thi*  northwest  coast,  with  its  long 
stretch  of  protected  waters,  would  in  time  become  one 
of  the  favorite  yachting  grounds  of  the  world. 

If  the  beautiful  Gulf  of  Georgia  is  wonderland  and 
dreamland  by  day,  it  is  often  fairyland  by  night,  and 
there  was  an  appropriate  finale  to  the  last  cruise,  when 
the  captain  came  down  the  deck  at  midnight  and 
rapped  up  the  passengers.  "  Wake  up  !  The  whole 
sea  IS  on  fire"  said  the  commander.  We  roused  and 
flung  open  stateroom  doors  and  windows  to  see  the 
water  shining  like  a  sheet  of  liquid  silver  for  miles  on 
every  side.  The  water  around  us  was  thickly  starred 
with  phosphorescence,  and  at  a  short  distance,  the 
million  points  of  lights  mingled  in  a  solid  stretch  of 
miles  of  pale,  unearthly  flame.  It  lighted  the  sky 
with  a  strange  reflection,  and  the  shores,  which  there, 
off  Cape  Lazro,  are  twenty  miles  away,  seemed  near 
at  hand  in  the  clear,  ghostly  light.  A  broad  pathway 
of  pale-green,  luminous  water  trailed  after  us,  and  the 
paddle-wheels  threw  off  dazzling  cascades.  Under 
the  bows  the  foaming  spray  washed  high  on  the  black 
hull,  and  cast  long  lines  of  unearthly,  greenish  white 
flame,  that  illuminated  the  row  of  faces  hanging  over 
the  guards  as  sharply  as  calcium  I'ays.  A  bucket 
was  lowered  and  filled  with  the  water,  and  the  marvel 
of  the  shining  sea  was  repeated  m  miniature  on  deck, 
each  lime  the  water  was  stirred,  ft  was  a  most 
wonderful  display,  and  many,  who  had  seen  this  glory 
of  the  seas  in  the  tropics,  declared  that  they  had 
never  seen  phosphorescent  waters  more  brilliant  than 
those  of  the  Gulf  of  Georgia. 


THE  SITE  AN  ARCHIPELAGO. 


297 


lufferin 
ide  his 
ts  long 
me  one 

ind  and 
;ht,  and 
e,  when 
;hX.   and 
e  whole 
sed  and 
see  the 
miles  on 
■  starred 
nee,  the 
Tctch  of 
the    sky 
;h  there, 
led  near 
)athway 
and  the 
Under 
le  black 
white 
ing  over 
bucket 
marvel 
3n  deck, 
a  most 
lis  glory 
ley  had 
mt  than 


With  such  an  illumination  and  marine  fireworks  we 
brought  the  last  cruise  virtually  to  an  end,  and  another 
morning  found  the  ship  tied  to  the  same  coal  wharf 
in  Departure  Bay.  The  pleasure  travellers  laitl  their 
plans  for  other  trips,  and  in  a  few  days  the  company 
was  scattered. 

Those  who  went  up  the  Frazor  River  to  its  cartons 
said  later:  "The  best  of  the  I">azer  only  equals 
Grenville  Channel,  and  the  dust  and  heai  are  intol- 
erable after  the  northern  coast." 

Those  who  went  down  past  Mt.  Tacoma,  Mt.  Hood, 
and  Mt.  Shasta,  and  into  the  Voscmite,  said  :  "  If  we 
had  only  seen  these  places  first,  and  not  after  the 
Alaska  trip." 

All  agreed  in  the  summing  up  of  an  enthusiast, 
who  had  travelled  the  fairest  scenes  of  Europe  and 
his  own  country,  and  wrote:  "Take  the  best  of  the 
Hudson  and  the  Rhine,  of  Lake  George  and  Killarney, 
the  Yosemite  and  all  Switzerland,  and  you  can  have 
a  faint  idea  of  the  glorious  green  archipelago  and  the 
Alaska  coast." 

My  first  journey  on  the  /^(/<i//(>  in  1883  ended  with 
our  staying  by  the  ship,  and  going  around  outside 
from  Puget  Sound  to  the  Columbia  Riser,  and  then 
we  were  tied  up  for  three  days  at  the  government 
wharf  at  Tongue  Point,  near  Astoria,  while  three 
hundred  tons  of  Wellington  coal  was  slowly  unloaded. 
The  smoke  of  forest  fires  and  the  summer  fogs  hid 
all  the  magnificent  shores  and  headlands  at  the 
mouth  of  the  great  river,  and  the  hundreds  of  little 
fishing-boats,  with  their  pointed  sails,  that  set  out  at 
sunset,  soon  x'anished  in  the  opaline  mists.  Afte'^ 
dark  a  thousand  tiny  points  of  Hame  could  be  dimly 


298 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


seen  on  the  water,  as  the  fishermen  lighted  the  fires 
in  their  boats  to  cook  their  suppers,  or  set  their 
lanterns  in  the  bows  as  they  sailed  slowly  back  to  the 
canneries  with  their  loads  of  salmon.  Five  days 
after  we  crossed  the  Columbia  River  bar,  the  ship 
reached  Portland,  and  the  journey  was  over. 

The  second  cruise,  which  was  blessed  with  clear 
sunshiny  weather  from  beginning  to  end,  was  con- 
cluded at  Port  Townsend,  where  for  three  weeks  we 
enjoyed  such  perfect  summer  days  as  are  known  no- 
where but  on  Puget  Sound.  With  Mt.  Baker  on  one 
side  as  a  snowy  sentinel,  and  the  broken  range  of  the 
Olympic  Mountains  a  violet  wall  against  the  western 
sky,  it  needed  only  the  foreground  of  water  and  the 
immaculate  silver  cone  of  Mt.  Tacoma  rising  over 
level  woodlands,  to  make  the  view  from  Port  Town- 
send's  heights  the  finest  on  Puget  Sound.  When  a 
great  full  moon  hung  in  the  purple  sky  of  nig? ":, 
miles  of  the  waters  of  the  bay  were  pure,  rippling 
silver  ;  and,  like  a  vision  in  the  southern  sky,  glistened 
a  faint,  ethereal  image,  the  peak  of  Mt.  Tacoma,  sixty 
miles  away. 

Appreciating  all  that  was  overhead  and  around  us, 
we  found  a  wonderland  under  foot  one  morning  by 
rowing  and  poling  a  small  boat  far  in  under  the 
wharf,  at  the  low  tide.  The  water  having  receded 
thirteen  feet,  the  piles  for  that  distance  were  covered 
with  the  strangest  and  most  fanciful  marine  growths. 
Star  fish,  pink,  yellow,  white,  and  purple,  clung  to  the 
piles,  many  of  them  with  eighteen  and  twenty-one 
feelers  radiating  from  their  thick  fleshy  bodies,  that 
were  twelve  inches  and  more  in  diameter.  There 
were    slender,    skeleton-like    little    starfish    of    the 


THE  SITKAN  ARCHIPELAGO. 


299 


brightest  carmine,  and   bunches  of  snow-white  and 
pale  yellow  anemones  {actima)  that  looked  like  large 
cauliflower  blossoms  when   opened   fully  under  the 
water.     Long   brown  pipes,  growing  in   clusters  on 
the  piles,  hung  out  crimson  petals  and  ragged  stream- 
ers until  it  seemed  as  though  thousands  of  carnation 
pmks   had    been   swept    in    among   the   piles.     The 
serpuJa,  that  lives  in  this  pipe-stem  house,  is  valued 
for  fish  bait,  and  the  voyage  under  the  wharf  was 
not   wholly  for  studies   in   zoology.     Huge  jcKy.fish 
floated  by,  opening  and  shutting  their  umbrella-like 
disks  of  pink  and  yellow,  as  if  some  wind  were  blow- 
ing  rudely   the   petals  of  these   wonderful   blossoms 
of  the  sea.     Shells  of  the  -  Spanish   dollar  "  lay  on 
the  sands  at  the  bottom,  and  at  the  water  line  little 
jelly-fish  could   be  seen  shimmering  like  disks  of  ice 
in  the  clear  light  of  the  early  summer  morning.     A 
scientist  would  have  been  wild  at  sight  of  that  natural 
aquarium,  and  to  any  one  it  would  appear  as  a  part  of 
wonderland,  a  beautifully  decorated  hall  for  mermaids" 
revels,  and  a  model  for  a  transformation  fairy  scene  in 
some  spectacular  drama.     The  woods  and  drives,  the 
scenes  and  shores  about   Port  Townsend,  excite  the 
admiration  of  every  visitor,  and  when  the  aquarium 
under   the   wharf  is    regularly   added    to    its   list    of 
attractions,  that   charming  town  will   have   done   its 
whole  duty  to  the  travelling  public. 


300 


SOUTUEliN   ALASKA. 


CHAPTKR    XXIII. 


SEALSKINS. 


1 1 


I  HAVE  never  been  to  the  Seal  Islands  myself, 
and  have  no  desire  to  cross  the  twenty-six  hun- 
dred miles  of  rough  and  foggy  seas  that  lie  between 
San  Francisco  and  the  Pribyloff  Islands,  in  Bering- 
Sea.  Considering  that  there  are  so  many  good  peo- 
ple who  think  that  the  Seal  Islands  constitute 
Alaska,  or  that  all  Alaska  is  one  Seal  Island,  it  has 
been  urged  that  I  must  include  something  about  the 
seal  fisheries  if  I  mention  Alaska  at  all.  Ir  defer- 
ence to  the  prejudice  which  exists  against  having 
people  write  of  the  regions  they  have  never  visited, 
all  apologies  are  offered  for  this  reprint  of  a  rambling 
letter  about  the  Seal  Islands  and  sealskins,  and  con- 
taining a  few  facts  for  which  I  am  indebted  to 
members  of  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company  of 
San  Francisco,  and  others  who  have  been  to  the 
islands  and  are  interested  in  the  fur  trade. 

For  all  that  has  been  written  concerning  the  Seal 
Islands,  many  very  intelligent  people  have  the  vaguest 
ideas  of  their  position,  size,  and  condition,  and  few 
women  who  own  sealskin  garments  even  know  that 
the  scientist's  name  for  the  animal  that  first  wears 
that  fine  pelt  is  CalloyJiinus  ursifms,  or  are  acquainted 


TUh:   sJTliAX    MiCinrKLAdO. 


aoi 


con- 
d   to 
ny  of 
the 

;  Seal 


I 


with  any  of  the  other  remarkable  facts  and  statis- 
tics concerning  the  sealskin  of  commerce.  Such  an 
absurd  misstatement  as  the  following"  lately  appeared 
in  a  journal  published  at  the  national  capital  in  an 
article  entitled  "  Our  Northern  Land,"  and  worse 
errors  are  frequently  made  :  — 

"  The  seal  fisheries  are  situated  near  Sitka,  and  on 
the  first  of  July  {1884)  a  railway  will  be  begun  be- 
tween the  two  points." 

When  we  first  started  for  Alaska  we  expected  to 
find  Sitka  the  centre  of  information  about  everything 
in  the  rest  of  the  Territory,  but  at  that  ancient  capi- 
tal less  was  known  about  the  seal  fisheries  than  at 
San  Francisco.  The  Seal  Islands,  discovered  by  the 
skipper  Gerassim  Pribyloff  in  1788,  lie  to  the  north 
and  west  of  the  first  of  the  Aleutian  chain  of  islands. 
St.  Paul,  the  largest  of  these  four  little  rocky  islets  in 
Bering  Sea,  is  fourteen  hundred  and  ivinety-one 
miles  west  of  Sitka,  and  between  two  and  three 
hundred  miles  from  the  nearest  mainland.  All 
communication  with  these  islands  is  hy  way  of  San 
Francisco,  and  the  company  leasing  them  permit  none 
but  government  vessels,  outside  of  their  own  fleet,  to 
touch  at  St.  Paul  and  St.  George.  The  Alaska  Com- 
mercial Company's  vessels  make  four  trips  a  year, 
their  steamers  going  in  ten  days  generally,  but  the 
Jcanncttc,  when  starting  on  its  Arctic  expedition, 
fell  behind  all  competitors  in  a  sldw  race  by  taking 
twenty-five  days  to  steam  from  .San  I'rancisco  to  St. 
Paul. 

At  the  time  of  the  Alaska  purchase,  in  186/;  the 
most  ardent  supporters  of  the  measure  laid  no  stress 
upon   the  value   of  these   Seal    Islands,  and    Senator 


302 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


Sumner  made  no  reference  to  them  in  his  great 
speech  which  virtually  decided  the  destiny  of  Alaska, 
and  made  it  a  possession  of  the  United  States. 
Hayward  Hutchinson  was  one  of  the  first  of  our 
countrymen  to  engage  in  the  fur  trade  after  the  trans- 
fer, and,  with  a  company  of  San  Francisco  capitalists, 
bought  the  buildings  and  goodwill  of  the  old  Russian- 
American  Fur  Company.  He  went  from  Sitka  across 
to  the  Pribyloff  Islands  in  1868,  and  there  encountered 
Captain  Morgan,  of  New  London,  Conn.,  who,  like 
himself,  had  gone  up  to  look  over  the  possibilities  of 
the  new  Territory  in  the  interests  of  home  capitalists. 
They  joined  forces,  and,  returning  to  San  Francisco, 
had  long  and  quiet  consultations  with  their  partners. 
Through  their  efforts,  Congress  passed  a  law  in  1869, 
declaring  the  Seal  Islands  a  government  reservation, 
and  prohibiting  any  one  from  killing  fur  seals,  except 
under  certain  restrictions.  On  the  first  of  July, 
1870,  the  islands  of  St.  Paul  and  St.  George  were  leased 
for  a  term  of  twenty  years  to  the  Alaska  Commercial 
Company  of  San  Francisco.  The  lease  was  delivered 
August  31,  1870,  and  is  signed  on  behalf  of  the 
company  by  its  president,  John  F.  Miller,  previous 
to  that  time  collector  of  the  port  of  San  Francisco, 
and,  since  his  retirement  from  the  presidency  of  the 
company,  a  United  States  senator  from  California. 
Beginning  with  the  first  da'y  of  May,  [870,  they  had 
sole  right  to  the  seal  fisheries.  The  annual  rent  of 
the  islands  was  fixed  at  $55,000,  the  payment  to  be 
secured  by  the  depc)sit  of  United  States  bonds  to 
hat  amount.  They  were  also  required  to  pay  a  tax 
of  two  dollars  sixty-two  and  one-half  cents  upon 
each  of  the  one  hundred  thou.sand  skins  of  the  fur 


rHK  SITKAN  ARCHIPELAGO. 


303 


upon 
fur 


seal  permitted  to  be  taken  each  year.  Fifty-five 
cents  was  to  be  p:iid  for  each  gallon  of  seal  oil  ob- 
tained, and  the  company  was  to  furnish  the  inhabi- 
tants of  the  islands  with  a  certain  amount  of  food 
and  fuel,  to  maintain  schools  for  the  children,  and  to 
prevent  the  use  of  fire-arms  on  or  near  the  sealing- 
grounds.  A  bond  of  $500,000  was  required  of  them, 
and  the  original  firms  of  Hutchinson,  Kohl,  &  Co., 
of  San  Francisco,  and  Williams,  Havens,  &  Co.,  of 
New  London,  were  merged  into  this  Alaska  Commer- 
cial Company, 

Although  269,400  sealskins  are  said  to  have  been 
exported  from  the  islands  from  1868  to  1869,  it  is 
claimed  that  the  company  had  up-hill  work  for  three 
years  in  getting  themselves  established  and  introduc- 
ing their  goods  to  the  market.  Since  that  time  they 
have  ridden  on  fortune's  topmost  wave,  and  been  the 
envy  of  all  the  short-sighted  rivals  who  might  have 
done  the  same  thing  had  they  been  shrewd  enough. 
None  of  the  original  members  have  left  the  company, 
save  by  death,  and,  it  being  a  close  corporation,  they 
keep  their  financial  statements,  their  books,  their 
profits,  and  affairs  to  themselves ;  and  the  outer  world, 
compelled  to  guess  at  things,  puts  a  fabulous  estimate 
upon  the  sum  annually  divided  among  the  stock- 
holders. The  officers  of  the  company  only  smile 
with  annoyance,  and  shrug  their  shoulders,  if  one  re- 
peats to  them  the  common  gossip  of  San  Francisco, 
about  each  of  the  twelve  shares  of  the  stock  paying 
an  annual  dividend  of  $90,000,  and  they  laugh  aloud 
if  one  appeals  to  them  for  the  confirmation  of  it. 
There  will  be  a  great  scramble  and  competition 
among  rival  traders  in   1890,  when  the  present  lease 


304 


SOUrifKH.y    ALASKA. 


of  the  islands  terminates,  and  by  the  bids  and  state- 
ments made  then,  more  light  may  be  cast  upon  the 
value  of  the  franchise,  unless  fickle  woman  puts  seal- 
skin out  of  fashion  by  that  time,  and  the  tanners, 
instead  of  the  furriers,  apply  for  the  lease. 

By  a  contract  with  the  Russian  government,  dating 
some  years  later,  this  same  Alaska  Commercial  Com- 
pany, in  the  name  of  two  of  its  members,  has  a  mono- 
poly of  the  fur  trade  on  Bering  and  Copi)er  Islands, 
and  at  points  on  the  Kamschatka  coast,  By  the  terms 
of  this  contract  one  of  the  members  had  to  be  a  Rus- 
sian, and  the  ships  engaged  in  this  trade  on  the  Asiatic 
side  have  to  carry  the  Russian  flag.  Out  of  the  com- 
pany's fleet  of  a  dozen  vessels,  two  steamers  fly  the 
Muscovite  colors,  and,  on  their  regular  trips  up,  carry 
large  cargoes  of  flour  and  provisions  to  Petropaulov- 
ski,  as  well  as  tr  their  own  stations. 

Besides  the  Seal  Islands,  the  Alaska  Commercial 
Company  has  thirty-five  other  trading  posts  in  the 
Territory,  and  its  agents  are  established  along  the 
Yukon,  and  at  many  points  in  the  interior.  The 
trade  in  seal  skins  from  the  Pribyloff  Islands  amounts 
to  about  one  half  of  the  general  business  transacted 
by  this  corporation.  At  their  offices  on  Sansome 
Street,  in  San  Francisco,  the  company  has  a  museum, 
crowded  with  specimens  and  curios.  Seal  life  is  repre- 
sented at  all  ages,  and  all  the  birds  and  fishes  and  min- 
erals of  the  country  are  shown.  There  are  mummies 
and  petrifactions,  reindeer  horns,  canoes,  albino  otter 
skins,  stone-age  instruments,  costumes  and  household 
utensils  of  the  natives,  and  needles,  books,  pipes,  toys, 
and  oddities  carved  out  of  bone  and  ivory,  and  deco- 
rated in  black  outlines  with  sketches  of  men  and  ani- 


THK   SlTliA\    .\H(  IIU'ELAaO. 


305 


mals  in  profile.  A  ponderous  old  silver  watch  is 
supposed  to  have  belon-od  to  some  one  of  the  early 
Russian  governors,  and  tliere  is  a  curious  bronze 
cannon,  with  an  inscription  in  ancient  Slavonic  letter- 
ing that  no  one  has  yet  read.  The  company  has  been 
very  generous  in  giving  specimens  and  collections  to 
different  museums  antl  societies,  antl  its  agents  arc 
instructed  to  gathar  such  things  and  send  them  to  the 
company's  headquarters.  In  an  uj)per  room,  where 
there  were  sixty  thousand  fox  skins,  hanging  tail 
downwards  from  the  rafters,  thousands  of  mink  and 
marten  skins,  and  piles  of  bear,  beaver,  lynx,  and  deer 
skins,  we  were  shown  the  skeleton  of  the  extinct  sea- 
cow.  The  exact  number  of  bones  in  the  sea-cow's 
body  has  been  a  matter  of  contention  and  uncertainty 
to  scientists,  and  there  was  once  a  wordy  war  over  it. 
Prof.  Elliott,  who  made  a  long  and  careful  study  of 
seal  life  for  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  and  whose 
monograph  on  that  subject  has  been  included  in  the 
census  reports  of  1880,  was  a  leailing  combatant  in 
the  battle  over  the  sea-cow's  bones.  This  fossil  skele- 
ton, sent  down  by  one  of  the  company's  agents,  was 
presented  to  the  California  Academy  of  Sciences,  and 
the  palaeontologists'  war  h  over.  Captain  Niebaum, 
one  of  the  vice-presidents  of  the  company,  is  a  great 
authority  in  matters  pertaining  to  Arctic  and  polar 
navigation,  and  he  was  consulted  about  the  details  of 
the  cruise  by  Captain  De  Long  of  the  Jcantiettc  expe- 
dition, and  the  Alaska  company  freely  supplied  that 
ship  with  provisions,  clothing,  dogs,  and  other  neces- 
saries when  it  reached  St,  Michael's  Island.  For  his 
own  use,  Captain  Niebaum  has  had  made  a  large  map 
of  the  polar  regions,  which  is  the  most  complete  and 


'     i 


308 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


unique  chart  in  the  country.  On  it  are  traced  the 
courses  of  all  the  exploring  ships,  and  the  dates  of 
their  reaching  important  positions,  and  the  artist, 
who  worked  at  this  circumpolar  chart  for  more  than 
one  hundred  days,  is  obliged,  for  a  certain  number  of 
years,  to  add  to  it  each  discovery  or  incident  of  explo- 
nition  in  the  arctic  world. 

The    company's   ships  usually  stop  at  Unalashka 
Island  on  their  way  to  St.  Paul,  and  that  chief  trad- 
ing post  of  the  old  Russian-American  company  has 
become  an  even  more  important  place  under  the  new 
regime.     Unalashka    is    one   of   the   largest    of    the 
seventy  Aleutian  islands  that  stretch  out  in   line  to- 
wards Japan,  and  on  it  was  made  the  earliest  Russian 
settlement  on  the  northwest  coast.     All  of  the  Aleu- 
tian islands  are   volcanic,   and  occasionally   another 
peak  thrusts  its  head  up  out  of  the  water,  flames  and 
cinders  come  from  the  mountain  tops,  and  earthquakes 
and  tidal  waves  create  disturbances  in  honor  of  a  new 
island  added  to  the  chain.  The  climate  is  rather  mild, 
and  the  temperature  varies  little  from  the  average  at 
Sitka.     There  is  almost  constant  fog  and  rain  during 
the  summer  months,  and  the  islands,  though  treeless, 
are   covered    with    luxuriant    grasses.      Cattle   were 
successfully  kept  by  the   Russians,  and  lately  there 
have  been    several  plans  laid  for  raising  cattle  and 
sheep  on  these  gras.sy  islands  on  a  large  scale  ;  Lieut. 
Schwatka,  the  hero  of  Arctic  and  Yukon  adventures, 
being  a  promoter  of  one  of  these  schemes.     At  this 
time,  instead  of  cattle  ranches,  there  are  fox  ranches 
on  several  of  the  Aleutian  Islands  ;  and  even  from 
far-away  Attn,  the  most  western  point  in  the  United 
States,  a  shipment  of  two  hundred  or  more  blue-fox 


THE  8ITKAN  AliCUIPELAGU. 


307 


;d  the 
tes  of 
artist, 
e  than 
ber  of 
explo- 

lashka 
f  trad- 
ay  has 
le  new 
of  the 
ine  to- 
.iissian 
;  Aleu- 
nother 
es  and 
quakes 
a  new 
r  mild, 
age  at 
:lurino- 

eeless, 
were 
there 
;  and 
Lieut. 
t  Lires, 
it  this 
nches 
from 
Jnited 
ue-fox 


skins  is  regularly  made  each  year,  and  care  taken  to 
protect  and  increase  the  numbers  of  the  foxes.  Sea 
otters  are  hunted  all  along  the  Aleutian  shores  ;  and 
in  the  group  of  Shumagin  Islands,  northeast  of 
Unalashka,  the  cod  fisheries  have  become  an  impor- 
tant industry.  A  small  fleet  of  schooners  from  .San 
Francisco  make  one  or  two  trips  every  year  to  the 
headquarters  on  Popoff  Island,  where  from  500,000 
to  600,000  fish  are  dried  and  salted  each  season. 
The  Alaska' Commercial  Company  has  also  a  trading 
station  and  a  salmon  cannery  on  Kadiak  Island,  be- 
yond the  Shumagins,  and  the  sea  otter  is  also  hunteil 
around  Kadiak,  by  native  hunters  in  their  tight  skin 
canoes  or  bidarkas.  Two  men  from  Kadiak  acquired 
a  certain  fame  in  1884  by  journeying  from  that  place 
to  San  Francisco  in  one  of  these  canoes,  nineteen 
feet  long.  They  were  Danes, —  Feter  Miiller  and  Nils 
Petersen  by  name, —  and,  following  the  general  line  of 
the  shore,  they  made  the  sixteen  hundred  miles  to 
Victoria  in  one  hundred  and  five  day.s.  It  is  consid- 
ered quite  a  feat  in  these  times,  but,  a  century  ago, 
the  natives  thought  nothing  of  such  a  journey. 

Although  Unalashka  has  a  custom  house  and  is  a 
port  of  delivery,  the  collector  at  Sitka  only  hears  from 
his  Unalashka  deputy  by  way  of  San  I'^rancisco,  and  a 
prisoner  arrested  at  Unalashka  has  to  be  taken  first 
to  San  P'rancisco  in  order  to  reach  the  authorities  at 
the  capital  of  the  Territory.  The  culprit  travels  three 
thousand  nine  hundred  and  ten  miles  to  reach  the 
Sitka  jail,  while  the  distance  straight  across  is  but 
twelve  hundred  and  seventy-eight  miles.  Unalashka 
is  a  headquarters  for  the  whaling  fleet  of  the  North 
Pacific,  which  now  numbers  thirty-eight  vessels.   The 


.O-. 


308 


SOUTH EUX   ALASKA. 


whalers  call  there  for  mail,  water,  and  supplies,  and 
stop  on  their  way  up  each  season  to  learn  how  the  ice 
is  beyond  ik'ring  Straits.  They  leave  word  as  to 
the  condition  of  the  berj^s  and  floes,  the  positions  of 
the  rcmainini;-  ships  and  their  catches,  as  they  come 
down  each  fall. 

At  the  Tribyloff  Islands,  two  hundred  and  twenty 
and  two  hundred  and  seventy  miles  further  north, 
ncithci-  whalers  nor  other  trading  ships  are  ever  seen 
The  heaviest  fogs  rest  upon  them  in  summer,  and  ice 
floes  beleaguer  them  in  winter,  stilling  the  heavy 
roar  of  the  surf,  and  putting  one  and  two  miles  of 
broken  ice  between  the  shores  and  the  open  water. 
The  shallow  waters,  and  the  upward  current  through 
Bering  Straits,  ])revent  icebergs  from  floating  down 
from  the  Arctic  Ocean,  ami  that  element  of  danger 
does  not  threaten  the  navigators  in  those  foggy 
waters.  During  the  breeding  season  each  summer, 
United  States  ofificers  are  stationed  on  the  two  smaller 
islands,  Coppc!'  and  W^alrus,  to  prevent  any  seal 
pirates  from  unlawfully  killing  the  animals,  and  on 
St.  Paul  and  St.  George  islands  special  treasury 
and  revenue  agents  watch  closely  that  none  of  the 
regulations  are  disregarded. 

The  three  hundred  and  ninety-eight  natives  who 
inhabit  the  two  islands  are  mostly  haji  breeds  of  the 
Aleut  tribe.  Thev  live  now  after  a  certain  civilized 
way,  in  neat  and  comfortable  houses  provided  for 
them  by  the  company,  but  it  was  at  first  difificult  to 
get  them  to  leave  their  filthy  underground  hovels. 
They  are  nearly  all  members  of  the  Greek  Church, 
and,  with  the  help  of  the  company,  support  a  chapel 
on  either  island.     Bishop  Nestor  used  to  include  these 


.■<t«./'J,-«->.'J  V'-.tJ   BI^ 


rilK    SlTh.W    AlHllll'KLACO. 


au9 


who 

pf  the 

Hlized 

[cl    for 

lult  to 

levels. 

lurch, 

:hapel 

these 


little  parishes  on  his  annual  visits,  and  celebrated  the 
mass  in  his  richest  vestments  before  their  altars.  To 
prevent  the  evils  of  intemperance,  the  company  is 
careful  that  no  intoxicants  are  sent  up  with  their 
stores,  and  suj^ar  anil  molasses  are  sold  to  the  natives, 
only  in  the  smallest  quantities,  for  fear  that  they 
mi^dit  distil  the  same  hooclnnoo  as  the  Thhnkets, 
Kailin;;  these  lu.xuries,  the  jK")or  Aleut  satisfies  his 
sweet  tooth  with  other  substitutes.  The  greatest 
quantities  of  condensed  milk  are  sold  them  each  year, 
the  seal  hunters  drinkmi;  a  can  of  milk  at  a  time,  or 
spreading  it  thickly  on  their  daily  bread.  The  large 
sums  they  receive  during  the  few  weeks  of  the  sealing 
season  enable  them  to  live  in  idleness  and  plenty  for 
the  rest  of  the  year.  They  arc  inveterate  gamblers, 
as  well  as  feasters  and  idlers,  and  after  the  long  hiber- 
nation and  pleasuring  of  the  winter  they  are  anxious 
and  ready  for  the  summer's  work. 

It  has  not  been  learned  yet  where  Cal/or/iinus 
ursinus  stays  for  the  rest  of  the  year ;  but  early  in  June 
the  desolate  shores  of  the  I'ribyloff  Islands  become 
vocal  with  the  hoarse  voices  of  the  seal,  which  have 
made  this  their  gathering-place  during  the  breeding 
season  for  unnumbered  years.  It  is  estimated  that 
three  million  seals  congregate  on  the  rookeries  of 
St.  Paul  Island  each  summer,  and  those  who  have 
looked  down  iij)on  these  rookeries  at  the  height  of 
the  season  rej-tort  it  as  a  most  astounding  spectacle. 
Acres  of  the  rocky  shore  are  alive  with  seals  of  all 
sizes  and  kinds,  and  the  very  ground  seems  to  be 
writhing  and  squirming  as  the  ungainly  creatures  drag 
themselves  over  the  rocks,  or  pause  to  fan  themselves 
with  their  flippers.     Great  battles  are  waged  between 


'A*<'yg4giM^W!y«,-*i' 


310 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


the  heads  of  seal  families  from  June  to  August,  and 
the  harsh  chorus  of  their  voices  is  heard  at  sea 
above  the  roar  of  the  breakers,  and  is  the  sailors' 
guide  in  making  the  islands  during  the  heavy  summer 
fogs.  Only  the  male  seals  from  two  to  four  years  of 
age  are  killed,  and  the  skins  of  the  three-year-olds 
have  the  finest  and  closest  fur.  The  method  of  kill- 
ing them  has  nothing  heroic  or  huntsmanlike  about 
it.  The  natives  start  out  before  dawn,  and,  running 
down  the  shore,  get  between  the  sleeping  seals  and 
the  water,  and  then  drive  them,  as  they  would  so  many 
sheep,  to  the  killing-ground,  a  half  mile  inland. 
They  drive  them  slowly,  giving  them  frequent  rests 
for  cooling,  and  gradually  turning  aside  and  leaving 
behind  all  seals  that  are  not  up  to  the  requisite  age 
and  condition.  When  the  poor,  tame  things  have 
reached  their  death-ground,  the  natives  go  round  with 
heavy  clubs  and  kill  them  with  one  blow  on  the  head. 
The  skins  are  quickly  stripped  from  them  and  taken 
to  the  salting-house,  where  they  are  covered  with  salt 
and  laid  in  great  piles.  The  natives  receive  forty 
cents  for  each  skin  taken  in  this  way.  After  a  few 
weeks  in  the  salting-house  the  company's  steamer 
brings  them  down  to  San  Francisco.  The  special 
agent  of  the  United  States  Treasury  at  the  islands 
counts  the  skins  before  they  are  siiipped,  and, 
accompanying  them  to  San  Francisco,  they  are  again 
counted  in  his  presence  by  the  inspectors  at  that  port, 
The  tax  of  $2.62%  is  pa"d  on  each  skin,  the  dirty 
yellow  pelts  treated  to  more  salt,  rolled  into  bundles, 
and  packed  in  tight  casks  ready  to  ^;hip  to  London. 
Of  these  one  hundred  thousand  sealskins,  eighty 
thousand  come  from  the  island  of  St.  Paul,  which  is 


THE  SITKAN   ARC  HI  PEL  AGO. 


3U 


St,  and 
at  sea 
sailors' 
ummer 
ears  of 
;ar-olds 
of  kill- 
;  about 
unning 
als  and 

0  many 
inland, 
it  rests 
leaving 
lite  age 
:s  have 
id  with 
e  head. 

1  taken 
ith  salt 
i  forty 
r  a  few 

earner 
pecial 
slands 
and, 
again 
port, 
dirty 
ndles, 
)ndon. 
ighty 
ich  is 


si.xteen  miles  long  and  from  three  to  si.K  miles  wide, 
and  twenty  thousand  skins  come  from  the  island  of 
St.  George,  which  is  not  even  as  large.  On  one  trip 
in  1883,  the  steamer  .S7.  Pa///  brought  down  sixty- 
three  thousand  sealskins,  valued  at  $630,000,  and 
the  ta.x  paid  to  the  government  on  them  amounted  to 

^165,375- 

When   Callorliijius  iirsinus  has  thus  delivered  up 

his  skin,  and  been  salted  and  packed  into  barrels,  he 

is   sent   on    by  railroad    and    steamship   to   London, 

where  the  Alaska  Commercial  Company  controls  the 

sealskin  market  of  the  world.     Over  seven  firms  in 

London  are  now  engaged  in  the  dyeing  and  dressmg 

of  sealskms,  although  there  is  a  fiction  still  passed 

around  about  the  secret  of  dyeing  being  held  by  one 

family  of  London   furriers.     Smiths,  Oppenheimers, 

and  other  great  firms  buy  the  sealskins,  dress  them, 

pluck  them,  and  give  them  the  deep  velvety  brown 

and  black  dye  that  constitutes  them  such  articles  of 

luxury  and  fashion.      A    firm   of    Paris  furriers  has 

been  setting  the  fashion  of   dyes   for  several  years, 

and  in  accordance  with  their  behests  the  color  has 

been  made  darker  and  darker,  until  it  is  now  nearly 

black.     The  oid   London   furriers  shake  their  heads 

at  this  change,  as  the  strong  nut  gall  and  acids  used 

to  obtain  this  rich   dark  tone  are  liable  to  eat  and 

destroy  the  leatner.     Cheap  labor  is  the  only  answer 

to  the  question  why  this  dressing  and  dyeing  is  done 

in  Europe   instead   of    America.     The   long,  coarse 

hairs  that  overlay  t^he  fine  fur  have  all  to  be  removed 

by  hand,  and   is  best  accomplished  by  that  "  pauper 

labor"  at  which  emigrated  demagogues  rail.     In  New 

York  there  is  one  furrier  who  attempts  to  rival  the 


■MM 


SB 


31.2 


SOUTH KRN   ALASKA. 


London  and  Paris  houses,  but  the  results  have  so  far 
proved  his  inability  to  outdo  them  in  price  and 
quality  of  work.  If  well  dyed,  a  sealskin  will  never 
fade,  spot  with  rain,  nor  mat  together  with  dust,  and 
it  is  even  told  that  one  London  dyer  put  one  of  his 
sealskins  in  a  tub  and  washed  it  with  soap  as  a  proof 
that  they  would  lose  neither  lustre  nor  color  by  such 
treatment.  It  takes  m.any  handlings  to  turn  the 
coarse  long  hair  of  these  skins  into  a  short,  velvety, 
and  glossy  fur.  Hot  sand  baths  and  chemicals  are 
used  to  get  the  grease  and  oil  out  of  the  skins,  and 
if  this  process  is  not  thoroughly  done  at  the  time, 
the  dull  and  matted  furs  have  to  be  puc  through  hot 
sand  again  after  they  have  been  made  up  into  garments 
and  worn.  Six  and  more  coats  of  rlye  are  necessary, 
and  it  is  applied  to  the  surface  only,  so  as  co  leave  the 
roots  01  the  fine  hairs  a  golden  yellow.  Like  the 
manufacture  of  gunpowder  and  so  many  other  things, 
the  art  of  dyeing  sealskin  originated  with  the  Chinese, 
to  whom  the  Russians  used  to  sell  nearly  all  of  their 
furs.  It  is  most  probable  that  it  was  their  intention 
to  imitate  the  costly,  purplish  urown  fur  of  the  sea 
otter,  which  in  Russia,  as  well  as  China,  was  formerly 
a  badge  of  rank,  and  is  still  the  most  expensive  fur 
sold,  single  skins  being  shown  at  the  San  Francisco 
warehouse,  worth  $ioo  and  S300.  The  otter  skins 
are  brought  down  dried,  and  require  only  to  be 
dressed  and  plucked  of  the  coarser  hairs  before 
being   ready  to  u.^c. 

After  being  dressed  and  dyed,  the  sealskins  pay  a 
duty  of  20  per  cent  when  they  return  to  this  country, 
and  the  cost  of  sealskin  garments  may  be  won- 
dered at  when  one  counts  the  items.     The   raw  :md 


so  far 

;    and 

never 

t,  and 

of  his    ^ 
proof 

/■  such 

n   the 

ilvety, 

lis  are 

IS,  and 
time, 

gh  hot 

rnents 

essary, 

ive  the 

ke  the 
hings, 

linese, 
their 
cntion 
le  sea 
merly 
ve  fur 

ncisco 

« 

skins 
to  be 
iK^fore 

pay  a 
|untry, 

i\  ;ind 


THE  8ITKAN  ARCHIPELAGO. 


313 


unsightly  skins  in  their  salt  are  worth  from  $ioto 
$i8  each,  according  to  quality.  There  is  to  be  added 
to  this  a  tax  of  $2.62,^/^  each  to  the  government ;  a 
charge  of  $6  or  $S  for  the  dyeing  and  dressing  ;  a  duty 
of  20  per  cent  when  they  are  returned  to  this  country  ; 
and  a  fair  charge  for  all  the  transportation  the  skins 
undergo,  and  the  insurance  on  them  during  this 
time.  This  gives  a  dressed  sealskin  ready  for  the 
furrier  to  make  up  into  garments,  at  an  average  value 
of  from  $15  to  ;^3e  It  takes  three  skins  to  make  a 
sacque  of  medium  size,  and  the  furriers  always  charge 
well  for  the  making,  as  the  greatest  skill  and  nicety 
are  required  in  sewing  the  skins.  That  furriers  reap 
a  profit  of  one  hundred  per  cent  on  each  sealskin  gar- 
ment is  quite  evident. 

By  the  wise  action  of  the  government  in  reserving 
the  seal  islands  and  leasing  them  to  a  responsible 
company,  the  seal  fisheries  have  become  more  and 
more  valuable.  The  seals  are  increasing  in  num.ber 
yearly,  and  more  than  the  regular  100,000  could  be 
killed  each  season  without  diminishing  them  to  any 
extent,  although  io  regulate  prices  the  company  has 
•  ften  taken  less  than  the  maximum  number  allowed  in 
^y.  season.  Alaska  seal  is  now  the  only  seal  in  the 
nruket,  since  the  rookeries  of  the  Antarctic  Sea 
have  been  so  persistently  hunted  ;hat  the  seals  have 
become  extinct.  The  Shetland  .-leals,  found  on  the 
islands  of  that  name  off  Cape  Horn,  for  a  long  time 
furnished  the  finest  skins  in  the  market,  and  command- 
ed almost  double  the  price  of  the  Alaska  sealskins. 
Not  being  protected  by  any  government,  the  islands 
were  free  hunting  grounds  for  every  ship  that  went 
"round    the    Horn,"  and   no  skipper  could  resist    a 


314 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


venture  at  such  costly  pelts.  From  the  Island  of 
South  Georgia  and  i"he  Island  of  Desolation  2,400,000 
sealskins  were  taken  annually  from  the  time  of  their 
discovery,  in  1771,  until  within  the  last  twenty  years, 
when  the  seals  gradually  became  extinct.  A  San 
Francisco  furrier  sent  a  schooner  down  to  those  Ant- 
arctic islands  a  few  years  ago,  and  sixty  skins  were 
all  that  were  obtained,  and  in  another  season  only 
three  skins  were  taken.  All  along  the  northwest 
coast,  from  Vancouvc '  V  Island  to  Unalashka,  where 
the  authority  and  mono^.  jf  the  Alaska  Commercial 
Company  begins,  a  general  warfare  is  waged  on  the 
fur  seal  by  independent  hunters  and  traders  ;  but  their 
catch  has  seemingly  no  effect  upon  the  millions  of 
seal  that  annually  gather  on  the  Pribyloff  shores,  and 
the  pelt  grows  coarser  and  poorer  the  further  south 
of  those  islands  it  is  obtained.  The  seal's  skin  is  in 
its  best  condition  during  the  summer  months,  when 
the  animals  frequent  the  Pribyloff  rookeries,  and  by 
wise  protection  the  government  has  an  inexhaustible 
source  of  wealth  in  these  two  small  islands,  that  have 
already  paid  into  the  Treasury,  in  rent  and  taxes, 
nearly  the  whole  amount  that  was  paid  to  Russia  for 
the  immense  territory  of  Alaska,  From  the  date  of 
the  lease  in  1870  up  to  March,  1884,  the  Alaska  Com- 
mercial Company  has  paid  in*o  the  United  States 
Treasury  $4,662,026.  Having  invested  $7,200,000  in 
the  purchase  of  the  Territory,  comprising  an  area  of 
580,107  square  miles,  the  government  has  derived  an 
annual  income  ranging  from  $262,500  to  55317,000 
from  two  of  the  smallest  islands  off  its  coast. 


THE  SITKAN  ARCHIPELAGO. 


315 


sland  of 

!,400,000 

of  their 
ty  years, 
A  San 
ose  Ant- 
ins  were 
son  only 
Drthwest 
a,  where 
nmercial 

I  on  the 
but  their 

II  ions  of 
)res,  and 
er  south 
kin  is  in 
IS,  when 
,  and  by 
laustible 
hat  have 
d  taxes, 
ussia  for 
i  date  of 
ka  Com- 
1  States 
o,ooo  in 

area  of 
'ived  an 
^3 1 7,000 


CHAPTER   XXIV. 

THE    TREATY    AND    CONGRESSIONAL    PAPERS. 

nPHE  following  is  the  official  text  of  the  "Treaty 
A  concerning  the  cession  of  the  Russian  Posses- 
sions  in  North  America  by  His  Majesty  the  Emperor 
of  all  the  Russias  to  the  United  States  of  America  ; 
concluded  March  30,  1867;  ratified  by  the  United 
States  May  28,  1867;  exchanged  June  20,  1867; 
proclaimed  by  the  United  States  June  20,  1867  :  "  — 

Bj^  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  America. 

A    PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas  a  treaty  between  the  United  States  of 
America  and  his  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  all  the 
Russias  was  concluded  and  signed  by  their  respective 
plenipotentiaries  at  the  city  of  Washington  on  the 
thirtieth  day  of  March  last,  which  treaty,  being  in 
the  English  and  French  languages,  is,  word  for  word, 
as  follows  :  — 

The  United  States  of  America  and  His  Majesty 
the  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias,  being  desirous  of 
strengthening,  if  possible,  the  good  understanding 
which  exists  between  them,  have,  for  that  purpose, 
appointed   as   their    Plenij^otentiaries  :  the  President 


316 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


of  the  United  States,  William  H.  Seward,  Secretary 
of  State;  and  His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  all  the 
Russias,  the  Privy  Counsellor  Edward  de  Stoeckl, 
his  Envoy  Extraordinary  and  Minister  Plenipoten- 
tiary to  the  United  States. 

And  the  said  Plenipotentiaries,  having  exchanged 
their  full  powers,  which  were  found  to  be  in  due  form, 
have  agreed  upon  and  signed  the  following  articles :  — 


ARTICLE    1. 

His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias  agrees 
to  cede  to  the  United  States,  by  this  convention, 
immediately  upon  the  exchange  of  the  ratifications 
thereof,  all  the  territory  and  dominion  now  possessed 
by  his  said  Majesty  on  the  continent  of  America  and 
in  the  adjacent  islands,  the  same  being  contained 
within  the  geographical  limits  herein  set  forth,  to  wit : 
The  eastern  limit  is  the  line  of  demarcation  between 
the  Russian  and  the  British  possessions  in  North 
America,  as  established  by  the  convention  between 
Russia  and  Great  Britain,  of  February  28-16,  1825, 
and  described  in  Articles  III  and  IV  of  said  conven- 
tion, in  the  following  terms  : 

"  Commencing  from  the  southernmost  point  o'  the 
island  called  Prince  of  Wales  Island,  which  point 
lies  in  the  parallel  of  54  degrees  40  minutes  north 
latitude,  and  between  the  131st  and  the  133d  degree 
of  west  longitude  (meridian  of  Greenwich),  the  said 
line  shall  ascend  to  the  north  along  the  channel  called 
Portland  channel,  as  far  as  the  point  of  the  continent 
where  it  strikes  the  56th  degree  of  north  latitude  ; 
from  this  last-mentioned  point,  the  line  of  demarca- 
tion shall  follow  the  summit  of  the  mountains,  situated 


THE  SITKAN   AlUHllPELAdO. 


317 


.r  the 
point 
north 
egree 
e  said 
called 
tinent 
itude ; 
narca- 
:uated 


parallel  to  the  coast  as  far  as  the  point  of  inter- 
section of  the  141st  degree  of  west  longitude  (of 
the  same  meridian)  ;  and  finally,  from  the  said  point 
of  intersection,  the  said  meridian  line  of  the  141st 
degree,  in  its  prolongation  as  far  as  the  Frozen 
ocean. 

'*  IV.  With  reference  to  the  line  of  demarcation 
laid  down  in  the  preceding  article,  it  is  under- 
stood — 

"  I  St.  That  the  island  called  Prince  of  Wales 
Island  shall  belong  wholly  to  Russia  "  (now,  by  this 
cession,  to  the  United  States) 

"  2d.  That  whenever  the  summit  of  the  mountains 
which  extend  in  a  direction  parallel  to  the  coast  from 
the  56th  degree  of  north  latitude  to  the  point  of  in- 
tersection of  the  r4ist  degree  of  west  longitude  shall 
prove  to  be  at  the  distance  of  more  than  ten  marine 
leagues  from  the  ocean,  the  limit  between  the  British 
possessions  and  the  line  of  coast  which  is  to  belong 
to  Russia  as  above  mentioned  (that  is  to  say,  the  limit 
to  the  possessions  ceded  by  this  convention)  shall  be 
formed  by  a  line  parallel  to  the  winding  of  the  coast, 
and  which  shall  never  exceed  the  distance  of  ten  ma- 
rne  leagues  therefrom." 

The  western  limit  within  which  the  territories  and 
dominion  conveyed  are  contained,  passes  through  a 
point  in  Behring's  straits  on  the  parallel  of  sixty-five 
degrees  thirty  minutes  north  latitude,  at  its  intersec- 
tion b)  the  meridian  which  passes  midway  between 
the  islands  of  Krusen.stern,  or  Ignalook,  and  the 
island  of  Ratmanoff,  or  Noonarbook.  and  proceeds 
due  north,  without  limitation,  into  the  same  Frozen 
ocean.    ,The   same  western   limit,    beginning  at  the 


ai8 


.SOUTIIEHN  ALASKA. 


same  initial  point,  proceeds  thence  in  a  course  nearly 
soLitliwest,  throuji;h  Behring's  straits  and  Behring's 
sea,  so  as  to  pass  midway  between  the  northwest 
point  of  the  island  of  St.  Lawrence  and  the  southeast 
point  of  Cape  Ch(nikotski,  to  the  meridian  of  one 
hundred  and  seventy-two  west  longitude ;  thence, 
from  the  intersection  of  that  meridian,  in  a  south- 
westerly direction,  so  as  to  pass  midway  between 
the  island  of  Attou  and  the  Copper  island  of  the 
Kormandorski  couplet  or  group  in  the  North  Pacific 
ocean,  to  the  meridian  of  one  hundred  and  ninety- 
three  degrees  west  longitude,  so  as  to  include  in  the 
territory  conveyed  the  whole  of  the  Aleutian  islands 
east  of  that  meridian. 


ARTICLE    II. 

In  the  cession  of  territory  and  dominion  made  by 
the  preceding  article  are  included  the  right  of  pro- 
perty in  all  public  lots  and  squares,  vacant  lands,  and 
all  public  buildings,  fortifications,  barracks,  and  other 
edifices  which  are  not  private  individual  property. 
It  is,  however,  understood  and  agreed,  that  the 
churches  which  have  been  built  in  the  ceded  terri- 
tory by  the  Russian  government  shall  remain  the 
property  of  such  members  of  the  Greek  Oriental 
Church  resident  in  the  territory,  as  may  choose  to 
worship  therein.  Any  government  archives,  papers, 
and  documents  /elative  to  the  territory  and  dominion 
aforesaid,  which  may  be  now  existing  there,  will  be 
left  in  the  possession  of  the  agent  of  the  United 
States  ;  but  an  authenticated  copy  of  such  of  them 
as  may  be  required  will  be,  at  all  times,  given  by 
the  United    States   to  the   Russian  government,  or 


TJIK  SITKAN   ARCIilPELAdO. 


319 


e  by 

pro- 

and 

)ther 

erty. 

the 

erri- 

the 

ntal 

e  to 

3ers, 

nion 

1  be 

ited 

em 

by 

or 


to  such   Russian   officers  or  subjects  as   they   may 
apply  for. 

ARTICI.K    HI. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  ceded  territory,  according; 
to  their  choice,  reserving  their  natural  alh:giance, 
may  return  to  Russia  within  three  years  ;  but  if  they 
should  prefer  to  remain  in  the  ceded  territory,  they, 
with  the  exception  of  uncivilized  native  tribes,  shall 
be  admitted  to  the  enjoyment  of  all  the  rights, 
advantages,  and  immunities  of  citizens  of  the  United 
States,  antl  shall  be  maintained  and  protected  in  the 
free  enjoyment  of  their  liberty,  property,  and  religion. 
The  uncivilized  tribes  will  be  subject  to  such  laws 
and  regulations  as  the  United  States  may,  from  time 
to  time,  adopt  in  regard  to  aboriginal  tribes  of  that 
country. 

ARTICLE    IV. 

His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias  shall 
appoint,  with  convenient  despatch,  an  agent  or  agents 
for  the  purpose  of  formally  tlelivering  to  a  similar 
agent  or  agents  appointed  on  behalf  of  the  United 
.States,  the  territory,  dominion,  property,  dependen- 
cies and  appurtenances  which  arc  ceded  as  above, 
and  for  doing  any  other  act  which  may  be  necessary 
in  regard  thereto.  But  the  cession,  with  the  right  of 
immediate  possession,  is  nevertheless  to  be  deemed 
complete  and  absolute  on  the  exchange  of  ratifica- 
tions, without  waiting  for  such  formal  delivery. 

ARTICLE    V. 

Immediately  after  the  exchange  of  the  ratifications 
of  this  convention,  any  fortifications  or  military  posts 
which   may  be  in  the  ceded  territory  shall  be  deli- 


320 


SOUTH K UN    M.ASKA. 


vered  to  the  agent  of  the  United  States,  and  any 
Russian  troops  which  may  be  in  the  territory  shall  be 
withdrawn  as  soon  as  may  be  reasonably  and  conve- 
niently practicable. 

ARTICLE    VI. 

In  consideration  of  the  cession  aforesaid,  the 
United  States  agree  to  pay  at  the  treasury  in  Wash- 
ington, within  ten  months  after  the  exchange  of  the 
ratifications  of  this  convention,  to  the  diplomatic 
representative  or  other  agent  of  his  Majesty  the 
Emperor  of  all  the  Russias,  duly  authorized  to  re- 
ceive the  same,  seven  million  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars  in  gold  The  cession  of  territory  and  domi- 
nion herein  made  is  hereby  declared  to  be  free  and 
unincumbered  by  any  reservations,  privileges,  fran- 
chises, grants,  or  possessions,  by  any  associated  con- 
panies,  whether  corporate  or  incorporate,  Russian  or 
any  other,  or  by  any  parties,  except  merely  private 
individual  property  holders  ;  and  the  cession  hereby 
made  conveys  all  the  rights,  franchises,  and  privi- 
leges now  belonging  to  Russia  in  the  said  territory 
or  dominion,  and  appurtenances  thereto. 


ARTICLE    VII. 

When  this  convention  shall  have  been  duly  ratified 
by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  by  and  with 
the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  on  the  one 
part,  and  on  the  other  by  his  Majesty  the  Emperor 
of  all  the  Russias,  the  ratifications  shall  be  exchanged 
at  Washington  within  three  months  from  the  date 
hereof,  or  sooner,  if  possible. 

In  faith  whereof,  the  respective  plenipotentiaries 


THE  SITKAA'   AHt'llll'KLAaO. 


321 


have  signed  this  convention,  and  thereto  affixed  the 
seals  of  their  arms. 

Done  at  Washington,  the  thirtieth  day  of  March 
tn  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hundred 
and  sixty-seven. 

[^-  ^J  William  H.  Sewakd. 

[^-  '^•^  Edouard  de  Stoeckl. 

And  whereas  the  said  Treaty  has  been  duly  ratified 
on  both  parts,  and  the  respective  ratifications  of  the 
same  were  exchanged  at  Washington  on  this  twen- 
tieth day  of  June,  by  William  H.  Seward.  Secretarv 
of  State  of  the  United  States,  and  the  Privy  Coun- 
sellor Edward  de  Stoeckl,  the  Envoy  Extraordinary 
of  His  Majesty  the  Emperor  of  all  the  Russias,  on 
ti.e  part  of  their  respective  governments,  — 

Now,  therefore,  be  it  known  that  I.  Andrew 
Johnson,  President  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
have  caused  the  said  Treaty  to  be  made  public,  to 
the  end  that  the  same  and  every  clause  and  article 
thereof  may  be  observed  and  fulfilled  with  good  faith 
by  the  United  States  and  the  citizens  thereof. 

In  witness  whereof.  I  have  hereunto  set  my  hand, 
and  caused  the  seal  of  the  United  States  to  be 
affixed. 

Done  at  the  city  of  Washington,  this  twentieth 
day  of  June,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  o^  •  thousand 
eight    hundred   and    sixty-seven,    and    oi    the    Inde- 

Fl  si       P^"^^"c^    «^    ^he    United    States    the 
■'       ninety-first. 

Andrew  Johnson 
By  the  President : 

William  H,  Seward,  Secretary  of  State 


322 


SOUTH KHN   ALA S KA . 


'  .i' 


#1^ 


'•■■:^ 


From  the  Revised  Statutes  of  the  United  States 
for  the  Second  Sessior)  of  the  Fortieth  Congress  is 
taken  the  following  :  — 

/f «  At/  /tuiktnir  an  Approprtdtion  of  Money  to  carry  into  F.f- 
fed  thi-  Treaty  loit/i  Russia  of  Manfi  thirtieth,  eighteen 
hundred  and  sixty-seven. 

Wmkrkas  the  President  of  the  United  States,  on 
the  thirtieth  of  March,  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty- 
seven,  entered  into  a  treaty  with  the  Kmperor  of 
Russia,  and  the  Senate  thereafter  gave  its  advice  and 
consent  to  said  treaty,  by  the  terms  of  which  it  was 
stipulated  that,  in  consideration  of  the  cession  by  the 
Emperor  of  Russia  to  the  United  States  of  certain 
territory  therein  described,  the  United  States  should 
pay  to  the  Emperor  of  Russia  the  sum  of  seven 
million  two  hundred  thousand  dollars  in  coin  ;  and 
whereas  it  was  further  stipulated  in  said  treaty  that 
the  United  States  shall  accept  of  such  cession,  and 
that  certain  inhabitant.-,  of  said  territory  shall  be 
admitted  to  the  enjoyment  of  all  the  rights  and  im- 
munities of  citizens  of  the  United  States  ;  and  whereas 
said  stipulations  cannot  be  carried  into  full  force  and 
effect  except  by  legislation  to  which  the  consent  of 
both  houses  of  Congress  is  necessary :  Therefore. 
Be  It  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  Ilonse  of  Representa- 
tives of  t/ie  United  States  of  Auieriea  in  Congress  as- 
senilded,  That  there  be,  and  hereby  is,  appropriated, 
from  any  money  in  the  treasury  not  otherwise  appro- 
priated, seven  million  and  two  hundred  thousand 
dollars  in  coin,  to  fulfil  stipulations  contained  in  the 
sixth  article  of  the  treaty  with  Russia,  concluded  at 
Washington  on  the  thirtieth  day  of  March,  eighteen 
hundred  and  sixty-seven. 

Approved,  July  27.  1868. 


TUK  HliKA.S   AUCUIFELAUU. 


6U 


During  the  First  Session  of  the  Forty-eighth  Con- 
gress, the  following  bill,  originating  in  the  Senate, 
became  a  law  : 


AN    AC'I     l'KOVn)IN(,    A    CIVIL    GOVERNMENT    EOK 

ALASKA. 

Bf  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  aud  House  of  Represen- 
tatives of  the  United  States  of  America  tn  Congress 
assembled,  That  the  territory  ceded  to  the  United 
States  by  Russia  by  the  treaty  of  March  thirtieth, 
eighteen  hundred  and  sixty-seven,  and  known  a.s 
Alaska,  shall  constitute  a  civil  and  judicial  district, 
the  government  of  which  shall  be  organized  and 
administered  as  hereinafter  provided.  'l"he  temporary 
seat  of  government  of  said  district  is  hereby  estab- 
lished at  Sitka. 

Si:c.  2.     That  there  shall  be  appointed  for  the  said 
district  a  governor,  who  shall   reside  therein  during 
his  term  of  office  and  be  charged  with  the  interests 
of    the    United    States  (lovernment   that  may  arise 
within  said  district.     To  the  end  aforesaid  he  shall 
have  authority  to  see  that  the  laws  enacted  for  said 
district  are  enforced,  and  to  require  the  faithful  dis- 
charge of  then-  duties  by  the  officials  appointed  to 
administer  the  same.     lie   may  also  grant  reprieves 
for  offences  committed  against  the  laws  of  the  district 
or  of   the  United   States   until   the  decision  of  the 
President  thereon  shall  be  made  known.     He  shall 
be  ex  officio  commander-in-chief  of  the  militia  of  said 
district,  and  shall  have  power  to  call  out  the  same 
w^hen  necessary  ^J  the  due  execution  of  the  laws  and 
to  preserve  the  peace,  and  to  cause  all  able-bodied 
citizens  of  the  United  States  in  said  district  to  enroll 


324 


SOUTHERN  ALASKA. 


and  serve  as  such  when  the  public  exigency  demands ; 
and  he  shall  perform  generally  in  and  over  said  district 
such  acts  as  pertaiu  to  the  office  of  governor  of  a 
territory,  so  far  as  the  same  may  be  made  or  become 
applicable  thereto.  He  shall  make  an  annual  report, 
on  the  first  day  of  October  in  each  year,  to  the  Prcsi- 
('ent  of  the  United  .  tates,  of  his  official  acts  and 
doings,  and  of  the  condition  of  said  district,  with 
reference  to  its  resources,  industries,  population,  and 
the  administration  of  the  civil  government  thereof. 
And  the  President  of  the  United  States  shall  have 
power  to  review  and  to  confirm  or  annul  any  re- 
prieves granted  or  other  acts  done  by  him. 

Sec.  3.  That  there  shall  be,  and  hereby  is,  estab- 
lishea  a  district  court  for  said  dis.  "ct,  with  the  civil 
and  criminal  jurisdiction  of  district  courts  of  the 
United  Ctates  exercising  the  juri^xliction  of  circuit 
courts,  and  such  oth'T  jurisdiction,  not  inconsistent 
with  this  act,  as  may  be  established  by  law ;  and  a 
district  judge  shall  be  appointed  for  said  district,  who 
shall  during  his  term  of  office  reside  therein  and  hold 
at  least  two  terms  of  said  ccairt  therein  in  each  year, 
one  at  Sitka,  beginning  on  i^he  first  Monday  in  May, 
and  the  other  at  Wrangel,  beginning  on  th^  first 
Monday  in  November.  He  is  also  authorized  and 
directed  to  hold  such  special  sessions  as  may  be  ne- 
cessary for  the  dispatch  of  the  business  of  said  court, 
at  such  times  and  places  in  said  district  as  he  may 
deem  expedient,  and  may  adjourn  such  special  session 
to  any  otner  time  previous  to  a  regular  session  He 
shall  have  authority  to  employ  interpreters,  and  to 
make  allowances  lor  the  necessary  expenses  of  his 
court. 


THE  SITKA^    ARCHIPELAGO. 


325 


re- 


ay, 
first 

and 
ne- 
iirt, 
nay 
iion 
He 
tn 
his 


Sec.  4.  That  a  clerk  shall  be  appjinted  for  said 
court,  who  shall  be  ex  officio  secretary  and  treasurer 
of  said  district,  a  district  attorney,  and  a  marshal, 
all  of  whom  shall  during  their  terms  of  office  reside 
therein.  The  clek  shall  record  and  preserve  copies 
of  all  the  laws,  proceedings,  and  official  acts  applicable 
to  -said  district.  He  shall  also  receive  all  moneys 
collected  from  fines,  forfeitures,  or  in  any  other  man- 
ner except  from  violations  of  tiie  custom  laws,  and 
shall  apply  the  same  to  the  incidental  expenses  of  the 
said  district  court  and  the  allowances  thereof  as  di- 
rected by  the  judge  of  said  court,  and  shall  account  for 
the  same  in  detail,  and  for  any  balances  on  account 
thereof,  quarterly,  to  and  under  the  direction  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  He  shall  be  ex  officio 
recorder  of  deeds  and  mortgages  and  certificates  of 
location  of  mining  claims  pnd  other  contracts  relating 
to  real  estate  and  register  of  wills  for  said  district, 
and  shall  establish  secure  offices  in  the  towns  of  Sitka 
and  VVrangel,  i:i  said  district,  for  the  safekeeping  of 
all  his  official  records,  and  of  records  concerning  the 
reformation  and  establishment  of  the  {)resent  status 
of  titles  to  lands,  as  hereinafter  directed  :  Provided, 
I'hat  the  district  court  hereby  created  may  direct,  if 
it  shall  deem  ij^  expedient,  the  establishment  of  sepa- 
rate offices  at  the  settlements  of  VVrangel,  Oonalashka, 
and  Juneau  City,  respectively,  for  the  recording  ol 
such  instrument!-  as  may  pertai:  to  the  several  na- 
tural divisions  of  said  district  most  convenient  to  said 
settlemer*;s,  the  limits  of  which  shall,  in  the  event  of 
such  direction,  be  defined  by  said  court ;  and  said 
offices  shall  be  in  charge  of  the  commissioners  respec- 
tively as  Hereinafter  provided. 


326 


SOUTHER :S  ALASKA. 


Sec.  5.  That  there  shall  be  appointed  by  the  Presi- 
dent  four  commissioners  in  and  for  the  said  district, 
who  shall  have  the  jurisdiction  and  powers  of  com- 
missioners of  the  United  States  circuit  courts  in  any 
part  of  said  district,  bat  who  shall  reside,  one  at 
Sitka,  one  at  Wrangel,  one  at  Oonalashka,  and  one  at 
Juneau  City.  Such  commissioners  shall  exercise  all 
the  duties  and  powers,  civil  and  criminal,  now  con- 
ferred on  justices  of  the  peace  under  the  general  laws 
of  the  State  of  Oregon,  so  far  as  the  same  may  be 
applicable  in  said  district,  and  may  not  be  in  conflict 
with  this  act  or  the  laws  of  the  United  States.  They 
shall  also  have  jurisdiction,  subject  to  the  supervision 
of  the  district  judge,  in  all  testamentary  and  probate 
matters,  and  for  this  purpose  their  courts  shall  be 
opened  at  stated  terms  and  be  courts  of  record,  and 
be  provided  with  a  seal  for  the  authentication  of  their 
official  acts.  They  shall  also  have  power  to  grant 
writs  of  habeas  corpus  for  the  purpose  of  inquiring 
into  the  cause  of  restraint  of  liberty,  which  writs 
shall  be  made  returnable  before  the  said  district  judge 
for  said  district  ;  and  like  proceedings  shall  be  had 
thereon  as  if  the  ^ame  had  been  granted  by  said  judge 
under  the  general  laws  of  the  United  v.)tater>  in  such 
cases.  Said  commissioners  shall  also  have  the  powers 
of  notaries  public,  and  shall  keep  a  record  of  all  deeds 
and  other  instruments  of  writing  acknowledged  before 
them  and  relating  to  the  title  to  or  transfer  of  pro- 
perty within  said  district,  which  record  shall  be 
subject  to  public  inspection.  Said  commissioners 
shall  also  keep  a  record  of  all  fines  and  forfeitures 
received  by  them,  and  shall  pay  over  the  same  quar- 
terly to  the  clerk  of  said  district  court.     The  governor 


THE  air  KAN   AliCtllPELAUO. 


327 


pro- 
11  be 
)ners 
:ures 
|:juar- 
jrnor 


:i 


appointed  under  the  provisions  of  this  act  shall,  from 
time  to  time,  inquire  into  the  ope.ations  of  the  Alaska 
Seal  and  Fur  Company,  and  shall  annuaLy  report  to 
Congress  the  result  of  such  inquiries  and  any  and  all 
violations  by  said  company  of  the  agreement  existing 
between  the  United  States  and  said  company. 

Sec.  6.  That  the  marshal  for  said  district  shall 
have  the  general  authority  and  powers  of  the  United 
States  marshals  of  the  States  and  Territories.  He 
shall  be  the  executive  officer  of  said  court,  and 
charged  with  the  execution  of  all  process  of  said  court 
and  with  the  transj)ortation  and  custody  of  prisoners, 
and  he  shall  be  ex  officio  keeper  of  the  jail  or  peni- 
tentiary of  said  district.  He  shall  appoint  four 
deputies,  who  shall  reside  severally  at  the  towns  of 
Sitka,  Wrangel,  Oonalashka,  and  Juneau  City,  and 
they  shall  respectively  be  ex  officio  constables  and 
executive  officers  -f  ihe  commissioners'  courts  herein 
provided,  and  shall  have  the  powers  and  discharge  the 
duties  of  United  States  deputy  marshals,  and  those 
of  constables  under  the  laws  of  the  State  of  Oregon 
now  in  force. 

Skc.  7.  That  the  general  laws  of  the  State  of 
Oregon  now  in  force  are  hereby  declared  to  be  the 
law  in  said  district,  so  far  as  the  same  may  be  appli- 
cable and  not  in  conflict  with  the  provisions  of  this 
act  or  the  laws  of  the  United  States  ;  and  the  sen'  'uce 
of  imprisonment  in  any  criminal  case  shall  be  carried 
out  by  confinement  in  the  jail  or  penitentiary  here 
inafter  provided  for.  But  the  said  district  court  sb..ul 
have  exclusive  jurisdiction  in  all  cases  in  equity  or 
those  involving  a  question  of  title  to  land,  or  mining 
rights,  or  the  constitutionality  of   a  law,  and  in  all 


328 


so  U  Til  KUN   ALA  SKA . 


criminal  offences  which  arc  capital.  In  all  civil  cases, 
at  common  law,  any  issue  of  fact  shall  be  determined 
by  a  jury,  at  the  instance  of  cither  party  ;  and  an 
appeal  shall  lie  in  any  case,  civil  or  criminal,  from  the 
judgment  of  said  commissioners  to  the  said  district 
court  where  the  amount  involved  in  any  civil  case  is 
two  hundred  dollars  or  more,  and  in  anv  criminal  case 
where  a  fine  of  more  than  one  hundred  dollars  or  im- 
prisonment is  imposed,  upon  the  filing  of  a  sufficient 
appeal  bond  by  the  party  appealing,  to  be  approved 
by  the  court  or  commissioner.  Writs  of  error  in  cri- 
minal cases  shall  issue  to  the  said  district  court  from 
the  United  States  circuit  court  for  the  district  of 
Oregon  in  the  cases  provided  in  chapter  one  hundred 
and  seventy-six  of  the  laws  of  eighteen  hundred  and 
seventy-nine;  and  the  jurisdiction  thereby  conferred 
upon  circuit  courts  is  hereby  given  to  the  circuit 
court  of  Oregon.  And  the  fmid  judgments  or  de- 
crees of  said  circuit  and  district  court  may  be  reviewed 
by  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  as  ia 
other  cases. 

Sp:c.  8.  That  the  said  district  of  Alaska  is  hereby 
created  a  land  district,  and  a  United  States  land-ofiice 
for  said  district  is  herebv  located  at  Sitka.  The  com- 
missioner  provided  for  by  this  act  to  reside  at  Sitka 
shull  be  ex  officio  register  of  said  land-office,  and  the 
clerk  provided  for  by  this  act  shall  be  ex  officio  re- 
ceiver of  public  moneys,  and  the  marshal  provided  for 
by  this  act  shall  be  ex  officio  surveyor-general  of  said 
tlistrict,  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States  relating  to 
mining  claims,  and  the  rights  incident  thereto,  shall, 
from  and  after  the  passage  of  this  act,  be  in  full  force 
and  effect  in  said  district,  under  the  administrat'on 


IHK  SlTKA^S   AHLHU'KLAdO. 


H20 


com- 
Sitka 
id  the 
rio  re- 
id  for 

said 
jng  to 
[shall, 
Iforce 


thereof  herein  provided  for,  subject  to  such  regula- 
tions as  may  be  made  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior, 
approved  by  the  President  :  Provided,  That  the  In- 
dians or  other  persons  in  said  district  shall  not  be 
disturl)cd  in  the  possession  of  any  lands  actually  in 
their  use  or  occupation  or  now  claimed  by  them,  but 
the  terms  under  which  such  persons  may  iicquire  title 
to  such  lands  is  reserved  for  future  legislation  by 
Congress  :  And  provided  further^  That  parties  who 
have  located  mines  or  mineral  privileges  therein 
under  the  laws  of  the  United  States  applicable  to  the 
public  domain,  or  who  have  occupied  and  improved 
or  exercised  acts  of  ownership  over  such  claims,  shall 
not  be  disturbed  therein,  but  shall  be  allowed  to  per- 
fect their  title  to  such  claims  by  payment  as  aforesaid  : 
Afid  provided  also,  Th^X.  the  land  not  exceeding  six 
hundred  and  forty  acres  at  any  station  now  occupied 
as  missionary  stations  among  the  Indian  tribes  in 
said  section,  with  the  improvements  thereo»t  erected 
by  or  for  such  societies,  shall  be  continued  in  the 
occupancy  of  the  several  religious  societies  to  which 
said  missionary  stations  respectively  belong  until 
action  by  Congress.  T3ut  nothing  contained  in  this 
act  shall  be  construed  to  {nit  in  force  in  said  district 
the  general  land  laws  of  the  United  States. 

Sec.  9.  That  the  governor,  attorney,  judge,  mar- 
shal, clerk,  and  commissioners  provifled  for  in  this  act 
shall  be  appointed  by  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Senate,  and  shall  hold  their  respective  offices  for  the 
term  of  four  years,  and  until  their  successors  are  ap- 
pointed and  qualified.  They  shall  severally  receive 
the  fees  of  office  established  by  law  for  the  several 


380 


so UTllKlt  S    A  LA  SKA . 


offices  the  duties  of  which  have  been  hereby  conferred 
upon  them,  as  the  same  are  determined  and  allowed 
in  respect  of  similar  offices  under  the  laws  of  the 
United  States,  which  fees  shall  be  reported  to  the 
Attorney  General  and  paid  into  the  Treasury  of 
the  United  States.  They  shall  receive  respectively  the 
following  annual  salaries.  The  governor,  the  sum  of 
three  thousand  dollars  ♦^he  attorney,  the  sum  of  two 
thousand  five  hundred  doilars  ;  the  marshal,  the  sum 
of  two  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  ;  the  judge,  the 
sum  of  three  thousand  dollars  ;  and  the  clerk,  the  sum 
of  two  thousand  five  hundred  dollars,  payable  to  them 
quarterly  from  the  Treasury  of  the  United  States. 
The  district  judge,  marshal,  and  district  attorney 
shall  be  paid  their  actual,  necessary  expenses  when 
travelling  in  the  discharge  of  their  official  duties.  A 
detailed  account  shall  be  rendered  of  such  expenses 
under  oath  and  as  to  the  marshal  and  district  attorney 
such  account  shall  be  approved  by  the  judge,  and  as 
to  his  expenses  by  the  Attorney  General.  The  com- 
missioners shall  receive  the  usual  fees  of  United 
States  commissioners  and  of  justices  of  the  peace  for 
Oregon,  and  such  fees  for  recording  instruments  as 
are  allowed  by  the  laws  of  Oregon  for  similar  services, 
and  in  addition  a  salary  of  one  thousand  dollars  each. 
The  deputy  marshals,  in  addition  to  the  usual  fees  of 
constables  in  Oregon,  shall  receive  each  a  salary  of 
seven  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  which  salaries  shall 
also  be  payable  quarterly  out  of  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  .States.  F.ach  of  said  officials  shall,  before 
entering  on  the  duties  of  his  office,  take  and  subscribe 
an  oath  that  he  will  faithfully  execute  the  same,  which 
said  oath   may  be    takon    before   the  judge   of    said 


1 


THE  SITKAN  AliClIIPELAGO. 


331 


nferred 

allowed 

of  the 

to  the 

5ury    of 

/ely  the 

sum  of 

of  two 

he  sum 

Ige,  the 

he  sum 

:o  them 

States. 

ttorney 

s  when 

ies.     A 

cpenses 

ttorney 

and  ns 

e  com- 

lUnited 

ICC  for 

nts  as 

rvices, 

each. 

ees  of 

ry  of 

shall 

)f  the 

efore 

Iscribe 

rvhich 

said 


district  or  any  United  States  district  or  circuit  judge. 
That  all  officers  appointed  for  said  district,  before 
entering  upon  the  duties  of  their  otTices,  shall  take 
the  oaths  required  by  law,  and  the  laws  of  the  United 
States,  not  locally  inapplicable  to  said  district  and 
not  mconsistent  with  the  provisions  of  this  act  are 
hereby  extended  thereto ;  but  there  shall  be  no 
legislative  assembly  in  said  district,  nor  shall  any 
delegate  be  sent  to  Congress  therefrom.  And  the 
said  clerk  shall  execute  a  bond,  with  sufficient  sureties, 
in  the  penalty  of  ten  thousanil  dollars,  for  the  faith- 
ful performance  of  his  duties,  and  file  the  same  with 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  before  entering  on  the 
duties  of  his  office ;  and  the  commissioners  shall  each 
execute  a  bond,  with  sufficient  sureties,  in  the  penalty 
of  three  thousand  dollars,  for  the  faithful  performance 
of  their  duties,  and  file  the  same  with  the  clerk  be- 
fore entering  on  the  duties  of  their  office. 

Sf:c.  lO.  That  any  of  the  public  buildings  in  said 
district  not  required  for  the  customs  service  or  military 
purposes  shall  be  used  for  court-rooms  and  offices  of 
the  civil  government ;  and  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  is  hereby  directed  to  instruct  and  authorize 
the  custodian  of  said  buildings  forthwith  to  make 
such  repairs  to  the  jail  in  the  town  of  Sitka,  in  said 
district,  as  will  render  it  suitable  for  a  jail  nd  peni- 
tentiary for  the  purposes  of  the  civil  government 
hereby  provided,  and  to  surrender  to  the  marshal  the 
custody  of  said  jail  and  the  other  public  buildings,  or 
such  parts  of  said  buildings  as  may  be  selected  for 
court-rooms,  offices,  and  officials. 

Sec.  II.  That  the  Attorney-General  is  directed 
forthwith  to  compile  and   cause  to  be  printed,  in  the 


332 


aOUTllKUy  ALASKA. 


English  language,  in  pamphlet  form,  so  much  of  the 
general  laws  of  the  United  States  as  is  applicable  to 
the  duties  of  the  governor,  attorney,  judge,  clerk, 
marshals,  and  commissioners  appointed  for  said 
district,  and  shall  furnish  for  the  use  of  the  otficers 
of  said  Territory  so  many  copies  as  may  be  needed 
of  the  laws  of  Oregon  applicable  to  said  district. 

Sec.  12.  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  shall 
select  t'vo  of  the  officers  to  be  appointed  under  this 
act,  who,  together  with  the  governor,  shall  constitute 
a  commission  to  examine  into  and  report  upon  the 
condition  of  the  Indians  residing  in  said  Territory, 
what  lands,  if  any,  should  be  reserved  for  their  use, 
what  provision  shall  be  made  for  their  education,  what 
rights  by  occupation  of  settlers  should  be  recognized, 
and  all  other  facts  that  may  be  necessary  to  enable 
Congress  to  determine  what  limitations  or  conditions 
shoukl  be  imposed  when  the  land  laws  of  the  United 
States  shall  be  extended  to  said  district ;  and  to 
defray  the  expenses  of  said  commission  the  sum  of 
two  thousand  dollars  is  hereby  appropriated  out  of 
any  moneys  in  the  Treasury  not  otherwise  appro- 
priated. 

Sec,  13.  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior  shall 
make  needful  and  proper  provision  for  the  education 
of  the  children  of  school  age  in  the  Territory  of 
Alaska,  without  reference  to  race,  until  such  time  as 
permanent  provision  shall  be  made  for  the  same,  and 
the  sum  of  twenty-five  thousand  dollars,  or  so  much 
thereof  as  may  be  necessary,  is  hereby  appropriated 
for  this  purpose. 

Sec.  14.  That  the  provisions  of  chapter  three, 
title   twenty-three,    of  the    Revised    Statutes  of   the 


THE  SITKAN   AHCUIPKLAaO. 


a;j3 


1  of  the 
icable  to 
e,  clerk, 
or  said 
officers 
needed 
ict. 

or  shall 
:ier  this 
istitute 
)on  the 
rritory, 
sir  use, 
n,  what 
gnized, 
enable 
ditions 
United 
md    to 
;um  of 
out  of 
appro- 

r  shall 
cation 
>ry  of 
Tie  as 
i,  and 
much 
riated 


United  States,  relating  lo  the  unorganized  Territory 
of  Alaska,  shall  remain  in  full  force,  except  as  herein 
specially  otherwise  provided  ;  and  the  importation, 
manufacture,  and  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  in  said 
district  except  for  medicinal,  mechanical,  and  scien- 
tific purposes,  is  hereby  prohibited  under  the  penalties 
which  are  provided  in  section  nineteen  hundred  and 
fifty-five  of  the  Revised  Statutes  for  the  wrongful 
importation  of  tlistilled  spirits.  And  the  President 
of  the  United  States  shall  make  such  regulations  as 
are  necessary  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  this 
section. 
Approved,  May  r;,  1884. 


THE    ENP. 


:hree, 
E  the 


3S 


3^i    I  33 £' 


IXDFiX. 


Ahercrntnl)if,  Lieut.,  r^i,  :;<)■;. 
Adams,    L'.    S.    stt-atucr,    4J,  2 jo, 

Alaska     (..'oinmeicial      Coinpanv, 

122,  J  51,  300. 
Alaska,  U.  S.  steamer,  21.S. 
Aleut  trii)e,  <r2,  2]2,  30.S. 
Alexander  Archipelago,  3,  2rt. 
Archives,  Russian,  212. 
Area,  2. 

Arthur,  President  Chester  A.  226. 
Astur,  John  Jacob,  199. 
Attn  Island,  203,  306. 
Auk  glacier,  loi. 
Auk  tiilte,  2T,2,  243. 
Aurora  liorealis,  265. 

B 

Ikuiks,  iVathaniel  P.  210. 
Baranotf,  192,  196,  199,  212. 
Baranotf  Island  of,  1.S5,  ujl),  2-57. 
Uaronovich.  ^^2,  7,],  37. 
IJartlert  C\)ve,  i2\. 
Baskets,  60,  90,  91.  125.  162. 
lieardslee,  ('apt.  I..  A.  219,  2\t,. 
Boars,  54,  57,  126,  277. 
Black  Stream,  see  Kuio  Siwo. 
Blarney  Stone,  192. 
Bodisco,     Secretary    of     Russian 
Legation,  203. 


Bracelets,  Indian,  39,  49,  61,  \(>S, 

179,276. 
Bradforil,  Ca|>t.  2o(>. 
lireweiy     I91. 
Buchanan,  i'lesident,  200. 
Mute  Inlet.  21)5. 


Candle  lish,  or  oulikou,  294. 

Canoes,  36,  66,  273. 

Cape  1m;\,  26,  27,  279. 

('arroll,   Capt,   James  C.  9S,  23S, 

290. 
Ca>siar  Mines,  67. 
Cath(jlics,  Roman,  6^,,  255. 
Cedars,  189,  256,  258. 
Census  of  inlKihit.int^.,  2  ;2. 
Chew.  R.  S.  203. 
Chilkat  blankets,  40,  106. 
Chilkat  inlet,  101,  1 10. 
Chilkat  River,  17,  101,  i  12. 
Chilkat  tribe,  105,  232,  24^. 
Chilkoot  Inlet,  tor,  117,  1 10. 
Chinese  coins,  216. 
<   limate,  1S6. 
t'oal.  12,  222,  244. 
Codtish,   247,  307. 
Cod  liver  fiil,  2  ^X. 
Coghlan,  Capt.  J.  I;.  221,  259. 
Congressional  papers,  ^,22-  ]], 
Cooperstown,  9.S. 
Cook,  Capt.  92,  205. 


Wf^lM'WiM^"*"' 


II 


INDEX. 


(■(tral,  1 89. 
<'rcm.itii)n,  57,  i8r. 
(.'rillon,  Mt.  ij;;,  i  VJ- 
C'rinican  war,  200. 
Curios,  Iiuliaii,  jS,  ^ij,  G\,  105,  loS, 
i6j,  179,  _7S. 


Dall,  ("apt,  C.  C.  1 15.  jij. 

Dall.   I'rol.    William    II.    \iz,   1S3, 

::oi,  22J. 
Daviilson,    rr<»f.    (leorgc   (".    102, 

III,  112,  i3(),  20S.  21  5. 
I  )a\  idsDu  ( ilai  ii:r,  102. 
l)avis,  (ieii.  J.  C".  2o(),  215,  254. 
Dt'partiiri;  I'.av,  1 1,  297. 
Devil's  .  lumil),  74. 
Discovery  I'ass,  17. 
Dixon  I'lntrancc,  4,  23,  269,  279. 
Dou^Iabs  Island,  Si.  97,  99. 
I  >  11  Iter  in,  I  .ord,  7,  295. 
1  >uncan,  Mr.  2S0. 

E 

Ma};lc  glacier,  101. 

I'lclipse  of  the  sun  in  iSCk),  i  12. 

I'.clioes,  14.},  133,  290. 

I'-dgecunilje,  Mt.  184,  237. 

lUlucafion,  229-31;. 

Ijiuiions,  ("a])t.  206. 

l'",l)idemics,  80. 

Es(|uimault,  13. 

I'*.s(juiniau.\,  62. 

Mtolin,  (.'apt.  2},o. 

Everctte,  Dr.  120. 


Fairweatber,  .\lt.  131. 
I-'erns,  S,  Ju,  1)4,  njr. 
Finlavson  C'luiniiel,  r\. 


Fish  stories,  28,  34,  92,    194,  210, 

225,  253,  2f)4,  2(kS. 
Franklin,  l,ady,  i()i,  216. 
Fiazcr  Kiver,  17,  Hp,  297. 
Furs,  49.  91,  126,  127,  210,  303.  306. 


ClainMing,  (k>. 

(lartield,  James  A.  20('),  210. 
( lastineau.x  ( 'liannel,  81. 
(lilman,  I.ieut.  17  \,  luO. 
(Ilaciation  of  .\la>ka,  136. 
(ilacier  I  lay,  123.  131. 

(ilacicrj  —  Auk,  101. 

Daviilson,  102. 

Eaijle,  101. 

Muir,  135 -4<). 

I'atterson,  73. 

Soundoun.  74. 

Stikine,  69 

Taku,  75. 
Glass,  Capl.  II.  A.  219,  :T,;'y 
(ilenora,  69. 

(Jortschaknff,  Prince,  200. 
'^'ircek  Church,  1  ^3,  163,308. 
( Ircnville  Channel,  21. 


H 


II 


aula  mission,  272. 
laiila  tril)e,  35,  43,  232,  243,   269, 

-75.  283.^ 
laidas,  origin  of,  44. 
laincs  mission,  117. 
laley,  Xicholas,  197. 
larrison,  Senator  Benjann'n,  226. 
lerring,  248,  294. 
le.^keth.  Sir  Thomas,  244. 
lolkam  Hay,  74. 
lolladay,  IJen.  179,  214. 
loochinoo,  179,  189,  217,  242,  309. 


J. 


1' 


.   -MO, 


joO. 


H<.oniaI,  t.ila..  ,.4.   12:,  ,->,   ,.,;,     Kc.uiali.  1),     >:. 
,,''°''3^'--*>  I  KilliMu,.,,  ,46.      ■ 

-';'Kr.^ap,.,-.  r..   ,.  -v..  .:.U.;Kinkca,I.J..h„II..,, 
Hot  ^|)rlng.s,  1.^3.  I  .-■         .    -^  * 

Howaid,  (ieiil.  ().().  .|;,  j j , 
I  low  kail,  269. 

Hudson   I!ay  (.'onipaiiy.   io_,   irS, 
-oo.  :!o.?,  ^11. 

Ifimlcr,  William.  -0,5. 

Hutchinsun,  llavwai<i  Mi.  j^02. 


Ill 


KiiMu-y's  cannery,  j(),  m(i.  117. 
Kiawak,  ^(ta,  >.-,,, 

Kli'iiKut/.  n  I  -  1^,  iji,  I  ^6. 
Kno.x.  'I'lionias  \\  .  jni. 
•^odiak,  !(,;,  ,.,S,  .'o.S,  229,  J07. 
K()l()sliian>,  <ij. 
Koot/iiahoo,  21^,  _•  5j,  _»  v^. 

K(iot/iialir..,,h,,iuljai(!nieiit  of.  jjr. 
Koskid,  ('apt.  J06. 
Koiiiii  Island,  255. 
Kraiisc,  (lie  hoctors.  i2\. 


Itlaho  lalct,  I.V)-  :\ 

I'Klian  r,.s,on,s  S^.  co  60  S--.,>      P "'  "".  """""'•  "' 

..7.  .So.  ,S..    ^     ^'  '     '■'    h"'--'-'f.  ^'-'a.n.  .5S 

Indian  r)iicstion,  231. 
Iiidiai\  Rivfi.    S9. 
In  mi  its,  62. 


Irondalf,  6. 

Irving,  Washington,  199. 


Kiiru  Siwo,  20,  1S6,  240. 

L 


/ackson,  Rev.  Sheldon,  17:;,  272. 
Jamest(j\vn,  I'.  S.  ship,  ^H). 
Japan  Ciirr-nt,  see,  Km*.  Siwo. 
Japonski  Island,  1S5. 


I.ahreltc's,  61. 
I.ahouelKTL'  Ml.  loj. 
I.tar,  William  King.  4S.  64. 
Legends.  ;,2.  y,.  70.  ,00,    177,  19;, 
<      -70,  27 J,  277. 
r.eut/e's  painting,  20";. 
Lome,  Marfpiis  ot,  7,  2()^. 
I.'>ii;;hl)iidj.;f.  Judge,  210. 

Jeanntttcarcticexpioringsteameri  l'"'l' ''"''',/'    ''■  --°- 
301,  505.  j  ''iitheran  Mission.  171. 

JeMiils*235.  I'-ynn  Canal,  100,  iO(> 

Jones,  Senator  John  P.  98. 


Juneau,  82-93,  i"^- 


Kaigahnee,  2(x.). 
Kake  tribe,  2  52,  254, 
Kake  war,  254. 
Karta,  see  Kasa-an  Hay. 
Kasa-an  Bay,  31,  267. 
Katalars  Rock,  157,  199. 


M 

McDougall,  Ca|)t.  206. 
Maksoutotf,  I'lince,  158,  174,  207. 
Marchand,  the  navigator,  8. 
Meade,  Caj.t.  R.   W.  73!  74,   ,5-, 

192,  254. 
Mcrrinian.Capt.  F.  C.  42,  220,  239. 
Mctlakatlah,  23,  2S0-84. 
Milhank  Sound,  21. 


'.  '^4 


IV 


INDKX. 


Miller,  Join-  K.  302. 
Minos  —  '  asNiar,  67,  6S. 

Douglass,  Id.  <)S. 

Harris     or      hmc-iiu 
Taku,  81  -S4. 

Sitka,  i(/). 

Skeciia,  23. 

SouiKloiin,  75. 

Treadwcll  or  Paris,  97. 
Missions,  62,    117,    171,    1^3,   23 


or 


234.  235, 


;<So. 


Mitchell,   I.icut.-ConiinaiKk  r,  2.\.\. 
Mitropolski,  I''atiier,  164,  1O9,  170. 
Monkey  legend,  245. 
Moravian  missionaries,  235. 
Morris,  W'm.  Goivcrneiir,  194. 
Mylliology,  41,  54.  181.  183. 


N^aha  Bay,  28,  29,  30,  267, 
Nanainio,  :  1,  12,  13,  14. 
Nasin-,  Pctiolcinn  V.  209. 
Nestor,  Uishop,  163,  30S. 
Ni'diols,  Capt.  If.  I".  22J,. 
Nicl)auin,  Capt.  305. 


Onitnancv  Cape,  J37,  262. 
Origin  of  tribes,  43,  57,  180,  243. 
Otter,  127,  304,  312. 

Pacific    iJ'oast     Stcatrship    Coni- 

p;.ny,  266. 
Patterson  GhiLier,  73. 
|-eril  Straits.  23S. 
Pes.choiiroft',  (!apt.  .\ lexis,  206. 
Petroff,  Ivan,  183,  213,  229,  232. 
Phosphorescence,  296. 


Pierce,  President,  200. 
Pin  a,  U.  S.  steamer,  22 r. 
Port  Townsend,  4,  5,  (>,  29S. 
Potatoes,  185,  188. 
Potlatehes,  58,  06,  17S,  221. 
i'recipitation,  ta'olc  of  veariv,  1S7. 
IVesliytcrian    Hoard    ot"   Missions, 

2.34. 
Prince  of  Wales  M.  262,  25S. 
I  Prince  of  Wales  Island  tri!)e  (west 
coast),  232. 
Prip  ess  Louise   TIk.  7. 
Purchase  monev,  202,  20C,  210. 
Pryamid  Harbor,  102. 


Q 

Queen  Charlotte  .Sound,  4,  20. 


R 

Ralston,  William  C.  214. 

Red  Pay,  2^2. 

Revenue  derived  from  Alad<a,  212. 

Revillagigedo  Channel,  28. 

Rothrocker,  Prof.  201. 

Rousseau,  (icn'.  L.  T.  206. 

Russian-American  tieaty,  202,  315. 


s 


vSaginaw  Jake,  249. 

Salmon  canneries,  27,  29,  34,  ro9, 

r  16,  I  f,  I  >4,  2(x\  281. 
Salmon  Creek,  2()3. 
Salmon  pros|).'ctor,  360. 
Salmon  trout,  203. 
.Samovars,  i  V), 
San  Juan  island,  ti. 
Saranac,  U    S.  steainer,  19. 
Schiefflin  Pnos,  122. 


•i-a  O 


=i3. 


Schools,  6.',    117,    rrj,    229, 

Sclio(;l  ap])roi>r!atioiis,  j^,  ^. 
Schvvatka,  Lieut.  Fit-cici  iciv,  1-0. 
Sciclmoie  Island,  i  51,  143, 
Seals.  I. 38,  300,  J09. 
Seal  Islands,  j,  ji  ,,  o^,-,  300,  30S. 
Sealskins,  310,  311,  31J. 
Seward,  Frederick  \V.  203.  214. 
Seward,  William    II.  .:,    112.   n 


INDKX. 
3.5'  I 


ry 


T 


'I'ally  llo,  brig,  zz^. 
Inkii  glacier,  75-79,  S;. 
'I'aku  Inlet,  75-7.),  -i(,. 
I'aku  liver,  75-7'>-!,  J16. 
Taku  tribe,  j  ^j. 
Telcgraidi,  201. 
relc{)!iuMe,  jSj. 
Temperature,  i8()-,SS. 


114,  ri5,  rrxD,  191,  _•().:,  214,  244.  !  'credo,  189. 
Seymour  .\arro\vs,  18,  i<;,  jc)^.        j  ' '^'ritoiial  governnicni.  zzG,  227. 
Shaman,  or  medicine  man,  40,  41,  i  '  t'-'^'*<la  iron  ore,  d. 

•  39,  J  30,  18 1,  249.  I    lliree- Fingered  Jack,  .11. 

Shelikoff,  Gregory,  2^9.  Tiniber,  256. 

Silver  Bay,  196.  Tobacco,  188. 

Silver  How  Hasin,  93,  96.  j  ''"'JiiKasN  23,  26,  20S,  216. 

Sitka, —  153-  2J(>.  j  'I''>ngas>  tribe,  23 j. 

Castle,  [57,  158.  .59.  ,00,  I  ''/^"K"^'  I'oint.  297 

Transfei  oT  ten  iinr\.  207. 

I'readwell  iiiin'i,  07. 

Treaty  of  purchase,  20J,  J05,  204. 


i()r. 
Church,  153,  (63.  (71, 
JacK,  I  to.  175,  i7,s,  183. 
Postma>ter,  153,  161. 
Tribe,  r8i,  232. 
Si  wash,  37,  51. 
Skeena  ri\cr,  2^,  201. 
Skoika,  272. 
.'^'lunddtm  glacier.  74. 
Soiiadoun  placer  niiues,  75. 
S|)oiiges.  189. 
Simoons,  carved.  40,  64. 
Starri  (iavan,  195,  J9S. 
St.  Klias.  Mt.  215,  236. 
Stevens.  Thiddeus,  .,0. 
Stikine  river,  49,  67-71,  2r6. 
Stikine  tribe,  49,  66,  2  ^'. 
Stoeckl.  Haron  Kdward,  200 
Stone  age  relics,  105,  225. 
Strawberries,  126. 
Sumner,  c'harles,  204. 
Suwanee,  U.  S.  steamer,  20. 


u 


Unalashka  Isl.md.  230,  306. 


V 


Vancouver.  6,  22 


99,  100,  1 18,  12^, 


02. 


I  5-',  -^39- 

j  X'ancouver  Island.  12,  1  5,   17,  294. 
Vegetation,  29.  63,  94.  (,s,s,  100. 
Veiiiaminolt,    liishop     Ivan,     roj, 

1S3,  -30. 
N'crstovaia.  Mt.  153,  290. 
X'ictoiia.  4  -9. 

w 

Wachusctt,  I'.  S.  .steamer,  220. 
Walk'.;,  Knbeit  j.  200. 
\\'as|ibiirn,  ( ',  ('.  210. 
Wellington  mine,  12,  1  -j. 


iiipli 


wmmmmm 


VI 


IXDKX, 


White,  ("apt.  John  W.  74,  1  11.  Wrecks,  —  Siiwaiicc.  I.'.  S.  steam- 

Wliymi.cr,  F.  \V.  Joi.  ,  er,  20. 

Willoughby,     "Dick"     124,    131,!  Wright,  Creoigc  S.  27S. 

132,  136,  149.  I  Wright  Sdiiiid,  22, 

Wran,uell,  Haron,  1 5S,  1S3. 
Wrangcll,  Fort,  46,  47,  20S,  i'i6. 
Wrangell  Narrows,  72. 
Wrecks,  —  (irai)|)lcr,  19. 

Fiircka,  23S, 

Saranac,  U.S.  steamer, 
19. 


Vakiitat  tribe,  232,  236. 

^"llkon  river,  2,  119,  120,  121,  201. 


StO  ^'  i^\  f 


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Margaret  Sidney's  books  are  lia|)piiy  describcil  a,--  "  siiouj;  and  pure 
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There  are  few  better  story  writers  than  Margaret  Sidney  —  HeratJ. 
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Comnienti*  of  Ihe  Meculnr  and  RclisioiiH  Pr«MM. 

?IVE  LITTLE  PEPPERS  AND   HOW  THEY  GREW. 
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SO  AS  BY  FIRE.    . 

Will  be  hailed  witli  eager  delight,  and  found  well  worth  reading. — 
Christian  Observer. 

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We  have  followed  with  inionse  inteit      the  itory  of  David   Folso:»i.     , 

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THE  PETTIBONE  NAME. 

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SEBA'S  DISCIPLINE. 

Extracts  from  comments  of  well-known  journals 

RUBY  HAMILTON. 

This  is  a  very  excellent  Si.Ma..y-sch()ol  book   which  cin  hi. 
TK'I  wen  told'f  '"^  youthfuf  readers.-- 7i;;{':"...;;:^ 

is  one  of  r.  1!  ..^"r'  ^''^■-^''  ""  l^"'"^'  ^^^'-^l^'-'"'  lesson,  and 
IS  one  of  the  best  books  of  its  c\^^^.-PhilaMphia  Ennuirer 
Ih.s  IS  one  ot  the  best  Sunday-school  bookC  in  l.oU  ot/s 
long  and  admirable  list.  Ti>e%tory  is  a  sweet  oe  ad 
charmingly  to! d.-<:7;//;r/.  y^/,Wvr.  ^^^eet  one,  and 

The  .spirit  throughout  is  healthy  and  devout.  Al- 

together It  IS  a  charming  and  instructive  book.-7;ft,/ d«r^/i. 

OLD  AND  NEW  FRIENDS. 

A  very  excellent  spedmen  of  the  class  of  fiction  designed 
for  young  folk  who  have  ceased  to  be  children  wTtC 
^^vmg  become   mature  men  and  women.-.V.  K  fJ^cX'^ 

Many  readers  will  remember  "  Ruby  Hamilton."  a  volume 
which  created  quite  a  sensation  at  the  timeof  its  Mibii.ation. 
.  •  .  !"'«  volume,  a  continuation  of  this  story  ou<rht  to 
become  us  popular  as  its  predecessor.-CV/,-,.//^/' J/i''J^ 

roV'^'^K l 'u'V''  '-'''Y""'''«    Pi'-tuies  of  home-life.      . 
Cannot  but  help  and  strengthen  the  boy  whose  imuulses 
are  for  good. -//m//</,/m//',v,/^,/^;..  "  ""Pu'ses 

I.ike  all  that  comes  from  this  author's  pen,  this  volume 
has  merits  of  both  substance  and  style.-  ikternhhrlluTu 

Owt'L/^.y^"'    '/    '^""-^Tr'    '^^    •'^^^''-^    ^^'^«''     ^'^"-V    l^OOks-- 
Cincinnan  Joiinial  ana  ^Messenger. 

SEBA'S  DISCIPLINE. 

:,ctr''n'''f  ^"if''^^''')'^'^  "-'^es  of  trouble  in  building  up  char- 
acter.—  VVt-itein  jRecordi'r.  ^    ' 

Has  a  varied  and  absorbing  intotest  from  ics  beginning  to  its 


Close.      .   .  Sometimes  san  and  wjnderfullv 


^athetic;  some- 


trnies  bright  and  cheerful,  it  is  impressive  always.     In  everv 

aa\,and  one      .     .     .     that  can  .sr.rcely  fail  to  benefit  anv 

reader  whom  God  leads  along  ro.gh  paths.-  tS.  S'L'"' 

bhuuid  be  in  every  .Sunday-'ohool  library.— 7//^  j,'/i,«./,^;-^. 


rhe    Yensie    Walton    Books. 

These  books,  from  the  jjen  of  Mrs.  S.  R.  Graham  Clark,  are  possessed 
of  such  conspicuous  merits,  as  to  secure  fwf  ttiem  the  unqualified  com- 
mendation of  emiiietU  religious  j  urnal"  such  as  the  Central  Christian 
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YENSIE  WALTON.  OUR  STREET. 

YENSIE  WALTON'S  WOMAMHOOD. 

THE  TRIPLE  E.  ACHOR. 

iznio,  cloili,  illustrated,  ut\iform  binding,  $1,50  each. 
YBNblE  WALTON. 

"  Yen-sie  Walton,"  by  Mrs.  S.  R.  Graham  Clark,  Boston:  D.  Loth, 
rop  &  Co.  Full  of  striking  incident  and  scenes  of  great  pathos,  with 
occasional  gleams  of  humor  and  fun  by  way  of  relief  to  the  more  tragic 
parts  of  the  narrative.  The  characters  are  strongly  drawn,  and,  in  gen- 
eral, are  thoroughly  human,  not  gifted  with  impossible  perfections,  but 
having  those  infirmities  of  the  flesh  which  make  us  all  akin.  It  will  take 
rank  among  the  best  and  most  [wpular  Sunday-school  books. —  Episcopal 
Register. 

A  pure  sweet  story  of  girl  life,  quiet,  and  yet  of  sufficient  interest  to  hold 
th6  attention  of  the  most  careless  reader. — Zion's  Advocate. 

YENSIE  WALTON'S  WOMANHOOD. 

The  many  readers  who  have  made  the  acquaintance  of  "  Yensie  Wal. 
ton  "  in  one  of  the  best  Sunday-school  books  ever  published,  will  be  de- 
lighted to  ri.-new  that  acquaintance,  and  to  keep  their  former  companion 
still  further  company  through  life.  There  is  a  strong  religious  tone  to  the 
whole  story,  and  its  teachings  of  morality  and  religion  are  pure  and 
healthful  and  full  of  sweetness  and  beauty.  The  story  is  a  worthy  suc- 
cessor to  Mrs.  Clark's  previous  work. — Roston  Post. 

The  heroine  is  an  excellent  character  for  imitation,  and  the  entire  atmos- 
phere of  tliebook  is  healthful  and  purifying.— /'/('/*A«r^  Christian  .4dvo  • 
Ciite. 

OUR  STREET, 

Hy  the  same  author,  is  a  capital  story  of  every  day  life  which  deals  with 

genuine  character  in  a  most  interesting  manner. 

THE  TRIPLE  E, 

Just  published,  is  a  b<5ok  whose  provoking  title  will  be  at  once  acknowl* 
edged  by  the  reader  as  an  appropriate  one.  It  fully  sustains  the  authorV 
letvitation. 

<\CiIOR,  a  new  book  . 


3ii- 


J?  7^'' 


>ni- 
'aH 
an 
'et 

Id 


THE    PANSY  BOOKS 

The  g.,n„n..„cs.  of  the  types  of  character  which    th  y  portray   s  l^, 
«ma,kal>le;   the.r  heroes  bring  us  face  to  face  with  eve  y  pha^  of      ml 

^llwh'r"-  '^'^''"  "'  '"^'"""^  ^''^'"^^^^^  .h/aLaTs   tS 
through  which  victorious  souls  must  go.  »"W,'cs 

"Her  stories  move  alternately  to  laughter  and  tears."  .  .  .  "Brimful  ol 
the  sweetness  of  evans;elical  religion  "  "i    „  Dnmtui  o| 

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-Ulity  appearit>g  on  every  page''    \     '.        ^  xTe    Z:  1^  "" 

i.  sustained  with  ra.e  power,  la  '  and  interest."  '«  The^'XT.S 

happmessol. rusting  in  God  happily  exemplified."         .  «  No  h    ' 

for  the  young  surpasses  this  colleciion  "  "  v  \        ""^'"K 

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An  EndlcM  Chain.    Ii.co 
A  new  Graft  on  the  Family  Trc 
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Bernie's  White  Chicken      75 
Chautauqua  Girls  at  Home.     (  co 
Cunning  Workmen,     i  25 
Divers  Women.     1.50. 
Docia's  Journal.     .75. 
Dr.  Deane's  Way.     1.25. 
Echoing  and  Re-echoing'    1  m 
Ester  Ried.     1.50  ^ 

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Five  friends,     i.oo. 
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^rotti  Ditfer^^nt  Standpoints      ..so 
('ttting  Ahead.     .75. 
Crancljia's  Darlings 
Hall  in  the  Grove. 
Helen  f.ester.     .75. 
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lulia  Ried.     1.50. 
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Mary   Burton  Abroad.     .75. 
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Mother's  lioys'  and  Girls'  L-brtry 
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Mrs.  Deane's  Way.     i  at 

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Sidney  Martin's  Christmas.     i".ea 
«Six  Little  (iirls.     .75.  ' 

Some  Youiifi,  Heroines.     ».oa 
Side  bv  Side.      60. 
That  boy  Hob.      75. 
The  Little  Pansy  Series.     4.0a 
Three  People.     1.50. 
Tip  Lewis  and  His  Lamp.     i.a& 
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tft 


ENTERTAINMENTS. 


Entertainments;  Comprising  Directions  for  Holiday 
Merrymakings,  New  Programmes  for  Amateur  Perform- 
ances, and  Many  Novel  Sunday-school  Exercises.  Collect- 
ed and  Edited  by  Lizzie  W.  Champney.  Boston:  D.  Lo- 
tlirop  &  Co.  Pric(  $1.00.  Mrs.  Champney  is  known  as  a 
popular  magazine  writer,  a  poet  of  no  mean  ability, 
i'iie  vohune  before  us  is  a  specimen  of  her  skill  in  another 
.lirection  — that  of  selection  and  compilation;  a  work  requir- 
iii;^  rare  judgment  and  almost  as  much  ability  as  would 
l)e  necessary  to  produce  an  original  work.  The  table  of  con- 
tents includes  exercises  for  Temperance  gatherings,  Fourth 
of  July,  Mis>ioiiary  concerts,  Decoration  day,  Thanksgiving 
and  Christmas.  Principally,  however,  they  are  intended  for 
use  at  Sunday-school  exhibitions  and  concerts.  The  ele- 
ment of  entertainment,  says  the  author,  must  enter  even  in- 
to religion,  if  it  is  to  be  dear  to  the  popular  heart.  Enter- 
ta:nments,  at  any  rate,  the  multitude  will  have:  it  only  re- 
maitis  for  Christians  to  decide  whether  they  shall  jnake  this 
mighty  power  a  Christian  force,  or  leave  all  the  merry  and 
bright  things  of  this  life  to  the  service  of  Satan.  Sunday- 
school  literature  is  very  defective  in  dialogues  and  lecita- 
tions  of  an  attractive  character,  and  the  preparation  of  a 
programme  for  such  occasions  is  a  matter  of  snpreme  diffi- 
culty. To  make  it  easier,  and  to  provide  a  source  from 
which  material  may  be  drawn  for  almobt  any  occasion,  the 
present  work  has  been  jirepared.  Most  of  the  mutter  is  new, 
and  is  contributed  by  persons  of  experience  in  musical  mat- 
ters and   entertainments  of  all  kinds. 

A  chapter  on  "  Accessories,  Decorations,  Sc  .ery,"  etc., 
furnlslies  full  information  upon  those  subjects,  and  a  num- 
ber of  patterns  for  evergreen  decorations  for  Christmas  en- 
tertainments are  given.  Taken  altogether,  the  book  exnctly 
lills  the  place  for  which  it  was  designed,  and  will  be  warmly 
welcomed  not  only  by  schools  and  societies,  but  in  every  fam 
ily  where  there  are  ehildren  to  be  amused  and  instructed. 


■3% 


't 


CHEERFUL   WORDS* 

In  the  whole  range  of  En«li3li  literature  we  cun  caH  to 
mind  tin:  works  of  no  single  author  to  which  the  title, 
'^Clieorfui  Words,"  ean  more  properly  apply  than  to  those  of 
George  Macdonald.  ft  exactly  expresses  the  element  which 
permeates  everything  from  his  pen,  whether  sermon,  essay, 
.•«lury  or  poem  —  an  element  which  strengthens  while  it 
cheers,  wl.ieh  instills  new  light  and  life  into  the  doubtingor 
discoiiiaued  soul,  and  incites  i',  to  fresh  effort. 

In  tlM"  v(,lume  before  us  the  editor  ha.s  brought  together, 
With  a  careful  and  judicious  hand,  some  of  the  choicest  pa^ 
sages  from   MacdunaM's  wcks,  written  in  various  kws  and 
upon  vruinus  subjoris,  but  all  marked  by  healthv  sentiment 
and  sunshiny  feelmg.     In  (pioting  what  a  late  critic  has  said 
of  the  "electrical   consciousness"   which  characterizes   his 
writings,   the  editor  remarks:   -  The  breadth  and  manliness 
of  tonn   and    sentiment,    the  deep  perceptions   of  human 
nature,  the  originality,  fancy  and  pathos,  the  fresh.'  out-of- 
door  atmosphere  everywhere  apparent;  above  all,  the  earnest, 
wholesome,  but  always   nnobtrnsive  religions   teachin-Mhal 
underlies  all  his  writings,  ,<rive  to   the  works  of  Ger.rge'^Mac- 
donald    a  certain   mugnotic  power  that    is  indescribable" 
And  in  the  selecth.ns  here  made  that  power  is  simnilarlv  ap- 
parent.    By  turns  they  touch  the  heart,  fire  the  i.nagination, 
moisten   the  eyes,  arouse   the  sympathies,   ami    bring  into 
active  exercise  the  better  feelings  and  instincts  of  mind  and 
heart. 

The  introduction  to  the  volume  is  from  tlie  pen  of  James 
r.  Fields,  a  persona/  friend  and  ardent  admirer  (,f  the  au- 
thor.  He  regards  Macdonald  a-s  a  master  of  his  art  and 
.H.evesin  h<.lding  up  for  admiration  those  like  him  '  who 
have  borne  witness  to  the  et.rnal  i,eauty  and  cheerful  capa- 
biht.es  of  the  universe  around  us,  and  who  are  lovinely 
remnKling  us,  whenever  they  write,  of  the  "holiness  of  help- 
fulness,  * 


♦Cheerful  Words.     Bv 


fieor^e  Macdonald  tntrodnctio,,  bv  Jarr.esT 
P.e,d.sandhoKraphvlnKmmat  Brown.  Spare  Minute  Series.  Boston 
U.  Lothr.)  )  .Sc  1..0.      Price  #1.00. 


Spare  Minute  Series, 


I 


THOUGHTS  THAT  BREATHE. 

From  Dean  Stanley.     Introduction  hv  Phillips  Hrooks. 

CHEERFUL.  WORDS. 

From  George  MacUonald.     Introduction  by  James  T.  Fields 

THE  MIGHT  OP  RIGHT. 

From  Rt.  Hon.  \Vm.  E.  Gladstone.     Introduction  by  John  D. 
Long,  LL.  1). 

TRUE  MANLINESS. 

From  Thomas  Hughes.    Introduction  by  Hon.  James  Russell 
Lowell. 

LIVING  TRUTHS. 

From  Charles  Kingslcy.     Introduction  l>y  W.  D.  Howells. 

RIGHT  TO  THE  POINT. 

From   Theodore    L.    Cuyler,  D.   D.     Introduction   by  New 
man  Hall,  LL.  B. 

MANY  COLORED  THREADS. 

From  Goethe.   Introduction  by  Alexander  McKenzie,  D.D. 


Each  volume^  \2fni\  cloth,  $t.oo. 


D.  LOTHROP  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

Franklin  and  Hawley  Streets,  Boston 


:*■ 


9¥i^ 


!S. 


'ooks. 
;s  1".  Fields 
by  John  D. 

nes  Russell 

Howells. 
1   by  New 

ie,  D.D. 


:# 


4j 


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IBoston 


